Lit We Hav to Go on an Adventure with Jello

Been waiting for this!!!



Korpil
http://sequart.org/books/47

 

Day of the Sepulchral Night has a pretty great title. It's by Jean Rabe, a professional writer in fantasy and gaming who's also written a bit of Galaxy Guide 12: Aliens and contributed The Farrimmer Cafe two issues ago. It was reprinted in Tales from the New Republic. Let's get into it.

We open with a loving Weequay couple who happen to be vacationing bounty hunters. They're out searching for a legendary hidden treasure aboard a rented sail barge on the touristy world of Zelos II. Our first-person narrator is the male of the pair, who's not crazy about spending the last of his money, after an already expensive vacation, on this treasure hunt, while his mate is into it, having been talked into the whole thing by the sail barge's pilot, a Qwohog named K'zk who claimed he could find the treasure, but needed people to retrieve it who could stand the saltwater, Qwohogs being freshwater amphibians. Sounds like a setup to me. The couple's names are Diergu-Rea Duhnes'rd and Solum'ke, and because I don't want to go crazy I will be calling them Diego and Sol.

Today happens to be the Day of the Sepulchral Night, a rare eclipse in which one of Zelo's four moons blocks the sun, and the plant-based Zelosians, who are quite paranoid about darkness presumably because of some primal photosynthesis thing, treat it as a terrifying occasion. For our amorous couple, a day of moonlight is romantic. Or at least for Sol; Diego's still focused on how he'd rather be back to earning some money instead of spending it about now. But it explains why K'zk couldn't get a Zelosian crew.

On their way out, they happen across a wrecked wave-skimmer. There are bodies being scavenged by carnivorous melk, but also some survivors, so our Weequays head over with some of the crew to help. The pull out a pair of human survivors, who say they wrecked thanks to the low tide coming back in a hurry to miss the Day of the etc., etc. It's actually the unusually low tides associated with the eclipse that make this the best time to go after the sunken treasure, hidden inside a cave on an underwater mountain range by a merchant prince whose ship crashed during another eclipse, when the peaks were out of the water, only for him to die before he could reach the city.

They find the ridge, where the Corellian pair admit they were after the same thing. Everyone else is excited for the treasure, but Diego is skeptical; it may not be the right location, the whole thing might just be a myth, the treasure might already be gone. Everybody should keep expectations down. The Weequays and humans head over in skiffs, and while the human Hanugar explores one big cave, Diego, Sol, and Sevik try one that Diego thinks looks like a better place to hide treasure. They go down a narrow passage (literally downward; Rabe doesn't seem to have considered that the seawater wouldn't have drained out of any part of the caverns below sea level) and finally find the treasure, a cavern full of riches. They start filling their bags. They spend so long filling them that they get caught by the tide coming back in, and have to rush to escape. They get out of the cave, only to find their skiff has been wrecked. It's unpowered but floating, so the Weequays climb aboard while waiting for the tide to come high enough for K'zk to bring the sail barge in closer. Sevik, however, managed somehow to swim to the barge -- and Diego realizes he's wearing a repulsor belt that neutralizes the weight of the sacks of treasure. They've been double-crossed. K'zk won't throw them a line until they throw him the treasure, and they won't throw the treasure until he throws them a line. He's got a blaster rifle on them. There's not much choice. They give up their treasure, and K'zk explains that the Corellians were his partners the whole time, using two different craft to look for the treasure. It was all a setup. And these pirates aren't going to rescue the Weequays -- better to eliminate the witnesses. So they leave them, heading back to their ship, the Corellian corvette Diego's noted at the spaceport.

They're stranded, but Diego is confident ships will pass by soon enough; they're on a traveled sea route and the eclipse is ending. And he's still got his pockets stuffed with gems, and an elaborate necklace he put on Sol. They may not be filthy rich, but they still came out ahead. They should be able to buy a new ship, even. And, after all, they're bounty hunters. They know several of their targets. They know their ship. They should be able to track them down. And say, here comes a sail barge.

As for their writeups, we find out Diego is a pragmatist who prefers to seek the bounties with the best combination of safety and payout, but he's also a romantic at heart when it comes to Sol. And he's quite devout, making annual pilgrimages to honor various gods, especially Quay, on Sriluur. Sol is a bit flightier, a dangerous bounty hunter but more apt to be distracted by pleasure, and she makes sure that the credits Diego saves up get spent on vacations, entertainment, and the like, which he is amenable to to make her happy. Both partners genuinely respect each other and work well together. K'zk is a con man who fled his homeworld aboard that Corellian corvette full of fellow tricksters and thieves. They travel the galaxy pulling off cons and following up tales of hidden treasure.

The Adventure Journal has gotten away from including Adventure Ideas lately, but here they reappear in the form of a set of Adventure Hooks. There's one where K'zk tries to scam the characters, and by being seen as his apparent partners, they get attacked by other victims looking for revenge, until it gets sorted out and you can team up against K'zk. Another has K'zk convincing the characters to help him loot one of Jabba's old palaces, selling them on the idea of his computers storing information the New Republic can use. Of course, he'll just use you to get access and then have his pirates double-cross you. The last has Diego hot on K'zk's tail, and K'zk convinces the characters he's a New Republic operative chased by an evil bounty hunter, trying to set you against him. All are good setups.

This is definitely one of the better short stories in the Journal; you can tell it's by a professional writer. It doesn't hit any particular highs with moments of great depth or striking ideas or solid Star Wars nerd payoff, but throughout it's a thoroughly competent, well-written adventure that feels original and fresh, with a few well-sketched personalities at its core. You can see the double-cross coming from a mile away, but the story still works. It has several nice bits to it, like the fact that the protagonists are both nonhumans, which is incredibly rare, and are believably depicted that way, or that they're a settled romantic couple -- it's not a falling-in-love romance story, but just a story about two people in a good, solid relationship. All of that makes it come off pretty well even if there's not all that much to the actual story.

Alien Encounters returns next.

 

Alien Encounters becomes a recurring feature here; like the last one, it just launches into descriptions of a handful of alien species, with no explanation of what the feature is. This, though, is by first-time contributor Brian Smithson, not veteran Timothy O'Brien.

Our first aliens are Bosphs. They've been mentioned in an earlier issue, and art of them appeared in the Galaxy Series cards, so it's a nice reference, at least. They're an odd species, with four thick arms, two legs, insectile compound eyes, pig noses, horns, and no necks. Bosphs generally enjoy isolation in which to contemplate spiritual and philosophical mysteries; they even prefer to stay away from each other, which would seem to make things like survival, society, or culture rather difficult. They are highly intelligent and contemplative, and highly religious, including a belief in Yenntar, unknown spirits they use to explain anything unfamiliar, giving them a reputation as superstitious fools. One heritage from their nomadic past is the use of navigational tattoos of star patterns and other such markers. They were discovered only a few decades ago and seem to have been offered representation in the Senate, which they declined in favor of remaining in isolation, though some left as scouts. The Empire mysteriously launched an unexplained orbital bombardment during the Dark Times, and currently blockades the planet, where the Bosphs refuse to acknowledge the attack or that the Empire exists as a kind of cultural sign of contempt or rejection. They don't have much trouble ignoring the blockade, since they're already isolationists. Bosph society is led by what seem to be profession-based guilds, and only the very few individuals involved in governance are allowed property rights; they can mark anything they want with their glyph and it becomes their property. If ownership is contested, they fight a duel. What the Bosphs don't quite know is that the Yenntar's power is the Force; that's how they know it, and it's Force-sensitives who are selected by their religious rituals to hold power, joining the guilds such as the Sickhealers or the Gamefinders and being trained to use primitive Force powers. The Emperor found that out, and that's why the planet was bombarded and quarantined. Some of these organizations are wise and benevolent, but some draw on some measure of dark side power. Nothing revolutionary here, but interesting with some gameplay potential.

The Geelan are "short, pot-bellied" -- I love that potbellies are a species trait -- well, Shistavanen Wolfmen, basically. Without the dog legs. They're not scary wolfmen, though -- they're barterers who like to collect trinkets and are generally looked down on. Well, I look down on the "trinket-collecting bartering simpleton" species stereotype, of which we already have enough already. We likewise already know them -- from the Zirtran's Anchor article in an earlier issue. They're from the jungle world of Needan, where they built a civilization until a comet hit the planet. There were massive die-offs, and the planet was jarred out of its orbit (though the article presents this as a much faster process than it could realistically be), meaning they were doomed to perpetual winter and would eventually run out of fuel, even with the dome cities they adapted and built. An information-age society, they began broadcasting distress signals in the hope someone else was out there. Well, galactic civilization was. An Arconan medical ship found them, they were brought into contact with the galaxy, and most left their dying planet for entrepreneurial pursuits in the galaxy at large. They don't recognize much in the way of limits to deal-making, using bribery and violence if necessary, and generally pursuing big, complicated, dangerous deals rather than boringly normal business. The Geelans are organized in nets, which all ultimately report to the leader of the species, the Great Geel.

The next species are Gigorans. They, too, are from an early Adventure Journal story. Gigorans are one of my least-favorite types of species: pointless Wookiee knockoffs. Friendly, loyal, tall, strong, furry -- the only real difference is that they have patches of shaggier fur on their heads, and they can speak Basic as well as grunt. They live in clans made up of a handful of families, and, ooh, they live in caves instead of trees. There's no planetary government, nothing beyond the home-clan level. Their homeworld was discovered well before they were, since scouts found it and dismissed it as low-value without ever finding the reclusive locals. It was a party of smugglers who found them and started selling them into slavery, which remains the main way Gigorans end up out in the galaxy. They're basically stone-age cave Wookiees with no real access with the wider galaxy beyond being enslaved. They're peaceful and friendly, but they will defend themselves.

The Najib are, you guessed it, another early-Journal species elaborated upon here. They're short, but extremely strong, with short snouts and bearded faces that make them look kind of like dwarf versions of the old, most humanoid version of Bothans. They're jovial, hardworking, and adaptable, loyal to friends and hospitable, if suspicious, to strangers. They come from a world with an irregular orbit and almost perpetual storms. They originated in caves; they feel like a collection of dwarven tropes. Their planet was discovered millennia ago, but only visited centuries ago. The Najib eventually integrated themselves into the galaxy, but remain little-known, despite some trading and mining activity based on Najiba. They're organized in tribes, but for dealing with the galaxy, each tribe elects one member to form a governing tribe that decrees law and deals with diplomatic relations.

The Issori fit the same pattern. But holy crap! "There is no standard Issori temperament. Issori may be of any disposition, much like humans." Wow, they can have different dispositions? It's almost like they're real people! They come from a world of mostly water, which they were surprised to find they shared with the Odenji, a related aquatic species. They happily cooperated, developing space travel together and colonizing their system, including Trulalis, where they ruled the human settlers. They eventually made contact with a Corellian scouting expedition and became part of galactic civilization. They've become fairly common in the galaxy, often found in aquatic professions. They have a two-house government shared with the Odenji, each house made up of representatives from one species, elected for life.

The Odenji are the Issori's gilled cousins. They don't get the dignity of having variable personalities: they're sad. They're basically a whole species with depression. Notably, the Issori convinced them, by and large, to come live on land, despite their planet being mostly water. A few hundred years ago, they entered a period called the melanncho, a species-wide bout of melancholy in which depression and violent crime went up and most Odenji became withdrawn, sad, and apathetic. They've thus retreated in prominence compared to the Issori due to missed opportunities, despite the period eventually passing. Still, though, Odenji individuals are more prone to depression. Theories about the melanncho abound; scientists think it may have been the result of a virus that swept the species, while many Odenji have come to believe it was a reaction to abandoning their old aquatic lifestyle and living on land, and are agitating for a return to the sea.

Now: Riileb. They're insectoids, but with mammalian eyes and horsey faces, they don't look insectoid. They seem to have just been labeled that way because they have antennae. The antennae allow them to pick up things like heartbeats, which let them sense others' moods. They come from a swamp world on the edge of Hutt Space and were discovered by Nimbanels. They refused to agree to Hutt service, and resisted several attempts at conquest, eventually becoming an independent world inside Hutt Space. They have matriarchal politics in which they're led by the eldest female directly descended, supposedly, from the mythical first Riileb, which leads to a lot of infighting within the MotherClan for power.

Trunsks were, you guessed it, seen in an earlier Adventure Journal. They're big, strong, furry, clawed aliens with tusks and vestigial horns, living on a cold world with thin atmosphere. So, knockoff Whiphids? They're kind to family and friends, but fierce and suspicious of outsiders. They developed as a world of city-states run by warlords all the way up through their information age, when Tyl the Deplorable conquered the planet and implemented a police state, stopping the conflict and directing scientific effort toward technological development. The Trunsks eventually acquired hyperdrive technology and spread out until they integrated with galactic society. Thankfully, this is not stated to have been five years ago, so they could have been an early exploring species going all the way back to the Republic's early days (and given they hail from the Colonies, that's most likely). The Empire enslaved them, but they're too fierce to make good slaves. The Empire also appointed Emperor Belgoa as a figurehead ruler of Trunska in a fairly clever scheme; Belgoa hides his affiliation, denouncing the Empire to his subjects but secretly allowing it to take a certain number of slaves, which of course includes his political enemies.

And that finally wraps this feature up; it's longer than the previous installment. While O'Brien's effort was a pretty good, fleshed-out development of species, this is more prone to simplistic stereotypes and underdeveloped cultural concepts. There are a few neat ideas tucked in there, but none of these species are really that special. What's neatest about them is that the whole thing is going back and revisiting these usually one-off species created offhand in previous Adventure Journal pieces and fleshing them out so that there's at least something to them. It turns name-drops and maybe a few cultural or biological details into a decently developed species writeup that other people can use, that gives these species more life than just a one-off appearance. I like that a lot. I like it when the Journal builds its content out into a developed part of the Star Wars universe rather than just throwing a lot of random stuff out there and leaving it hanging as everybody scrambles to create their own planet or own alien or own smuggler but never ties it back into the larger galaxy.

This will be followed by a short story -- The Occupation of Rhamalai.

 

The Occupation of Rhamalai is the one and only contribution of M.H. Watkins. Is it a shame she was one-and-done? Let's find out.

Charis Enasteri is woken from a nightmare by her seventeen-year-old daughter, Nadra. Charis has a terminal disease, and Nadra is delighted to tell her that the Imperials have landed on the planet -- opening the possibility of a cure through Imperial medicine, Rhamalai rejecting modern technology. Charis, however, warns her daughter that the Imperials cannot be trusted, and then they get ready as Imperial stormtroopers move house-to-house. Because apparently when the Empire takes possession of a world, it really takes possession, with stormtroopers sweeping every house. The invading stormtroopers don't seem to care about Charis's condition, or really anything she has to say; they just want her to know that all men between sixteen and thirty-five must report immediately for conscription. Not registration -- conscription; literally all the men are being drafted. Nadra, meanwhile, is told to report tomorrow for a civilian support position. The Empire needs clerks, too. The stormtrooper does promise that Charis will be collected and treated tomorrow, thanks to the Emperor's benevolence. By the time they leave, Nadra's not so high on the Empire's presence.

Charis then reveals part of her concern about the Empire -- her "dead" husband was wanted by the Empire, and left Rhamalai when Nadra was a baby, to protect the family. He could be out there still, which excites Nadra with the possibility of finding him.

Meanwhile, Denel Moonrunner feels distress in the Force. He doesn't know that's what it is, but it's clearly what he's feeling -- a vague sense of unease, that he should help somebody. Then he's called inside by his parents to find stormtroopers there to conscript him into the Imperial Army. He's shoved out the door at gunpoint, told to obey orders and come along, never mind anything else.

Then we get General Yrros demanding that Planetary Trade Director Markren Pellias instruct the people of the world to submit. Pellias is outraged, but Yrros is pretty intimidating, and he's sticking to the Imperial line -- everything about this is a great opportunity, it's necessary for the Empire, and everyone is going to happily go along with it. So Pellias concedes. Yrros says that if they cooperate, don't worry, everything will be exactly like before -- except every single decision Pellias makes will need to be pre-approved by Yrros as the occupying authority. You know, just a little tweak to the org chart. Also, the Empire's going to bring in better technology and start large-scale cultivation to produce food for the Empire. Pellias explains that you can't just impose new technology -- the world was settled four hundred years ago by Cheri****es, who believe in living in harmony with the natural world and reject technology beyond their simple needs. The planet's laws enshrine their beliefs. In fact, he explains, they were once guarded by a Jedi who settled with the original colonists and lived three hundred years as a healer and watchman, dying around the time the Empire came to power (which is one hundred years ago in this chronology, which . . . yeah, that doesn't work). Yrros is unimpressed by their Space Amish ways, which he simply mocks as backwards and stupid, and insists he's here to bring this backwater ball up to speed, with a good slap for Pellias when he suggests that the world needs protection from the Empire, not by it.

Lorn Moonrunner, Denel's dad, sits at a table, while a "Rhamalian time device" ticks, which has to be the worst unnecessary sci-fi name for a clock ever. He's spoken with Pellias, and he assures his wife that Pellias assured him that Denel shouldn't have it too bad, being human and all, and anyway there's nothing they can do. And, he assures her, the Empire won't find out who they really are from Denel, since he doesn't know. The kid's Force-sensitive, so I'm guessing we've got some runaway Jedi hiding out here. Anyway, Lorn comes up with a plan to get Denel out of the Imperial garrison with the assistance of Nadra. And of some device he pulls out from under the floorboards, which does not, however, seem to be a lightsaber.

Yrros shouts at some recruits, who include Denel, about how they belong to the Empire now and are going to do great Imperial things. My main takeaway here is that Yrros is Sorry backwards.

Then, Nadra literally runs into Denel. She drags him into a closet and tells him the Empire is going to euthanize her mother, since her illness stems from an incurable genetic condition, and hell, it's only going to get worse, so let's save the money and the pain and off her now. So then Denel comes up with a plan for Nadra to go to his dad and get him and her mother out.

A Captain Tosh complains to Yrros that the security perimeter and procedures for the base are incomplete -- but Yrros dismisses his concern. They're not a priority until after the agricultural systems are up and running, because the primitive locals couldn't possibly pose a threat. Famous last words. Of course, he ends the scene looking up wanted criminals to cross-index with the planetary population, so I guess he's smart enough to figure out this place would make a pretty good hideout.

Lorn explains to Nadra that he and his wife are actually fugitives who know quite a bit about the Imperial Army, so maybe they're not Jedi, I guess? But anyway, they illegally hid their spaceship when they settled here, rather than destroying it, so they can escape if they get Denel and her mom out. In fact, they've kept it up and even flown it occasionally, training Denel how to fly it. So I guess the kid at least knew something was up with his family. There's even a droid, R2-4B, aboard to keep it maintained, and the mystery device is a remote to contact it. He's summoned Forbee to bring the ship, and then the droid will meet up with Nadra, presumably to slice in at the garrison.

At the garrison, Nadra is able to bring Forbee in by claiming she found him wandering around in the town. He's been painted up like an Imperial droid, and with there being no native technology and the security systems limited, well, obviously the droid must be Imperial, so bring him in and take him to maintenance. She brings him inside, then fakes a computer issue at her desk to allow her to call him in as a maintenance droid and allow him to plug in -- a rare concession to logic in a setting that generally just presumes there are a bunch of unmonitored droid jacks all over Imperial bases wherever the heroes need them -- and slice Denel's personnel file so that he's now recorded as an infirmary technician.

Denel shows up with the assignment to take Charis to the termination room. Nadra's also there, authorized a last visit, so they explain the plan to Charis and start to slip her out. With a little help from Forbee, they're able to tell the technician on duty that Charis is being released and take her up to the landspeeder bay to leave.

Meanwhile, Yrros is playing around with his records and finally makes the connection -- Lorn Moonrunner is actually Major Corvus Langlier, a wanted man Yrros actually knows. Yrros calls to have the son, who he knows to be a recruit, in, but find out he's out in a landspeeder on an assignment he's not supposed to be on -- oh no! Catch him!

Denel is just through the gates when the order gets out and stormtroopers open fire. So Denel gets out some blaster rifles and stays behind to start shooting back, letting the girl who literally doesn't even know what this technology is drive. There doesn't seem to be any particular reason he couldn't have just kept driving. Or at least shot back from the back seat of the speeder. Nadra pulls into a barn, and when Denel's parents contact her on the comm he gave her, she demands they go rescue him -- she'll be fine for now. Lorn lands to rescue Denel, hoping Forbee will do his job of keeping the fighters from being scrambled against them. But it turns out Forbee's actual job is to suicide-bomb Yrros, which is kind of messed up. Meanwhile, the parents pick up Denel, who somehow held off the entire garrison for any amount of time, pretty easily and take off, only to run into a few TIEs, which get taken out when Forbee's suicide bomb somehow blows up like the entire top floor of the base as they lure the fighters over it. Denel then contacts Nadra, who for some reason insists that Denel escape without taking her with them, that she and her mom will be totally fine on this Imperial-occupied planet. Denel, who seems to be in love with her, is upset as they escape to hyperspace, using a code Lorn built in to Imperial weapons systems back when he was some kind of engineer to allow him to disable the TIEs' weapons.

Nadra takes her mother to the Moonrunners' old hideout where they stashed their ship, and they farm peacefully there, with the Empire somehow managing not to find them. In an obvious hook for a sequel that never came, Charis hopes that Nadra will someday find her father Neth, while Denel and Lorn have already vowed to come back and help someday if they can.

From the writeups, we get confirmation that Denel is Force-sensitive, as well as some expansion on his desire to attend the Raithal Academy despite his father's counsel (this desire didn't last long after actual contact with the Imperial military). We also learn that General Yrros's first name is Naem, which is not only an anagram for Name, but is also Mean spelled backwards. General Mean Sorry is a Raithal man himself. He's intelligent, though prejudiced, and known for his love of artillery and for showing talent in ground assault tactics, and is hoping to complete this assignment quickly so he can be promoted to a better command. Nadra, we're told, is also Force-sensitive, though the story never hinted at that. She wanted to attend Bellorin Medical Academy on Seitia Prime, but gave it up to take care of her mother. I have no idea how she'd know to want to attend an offworld medical academy when she's been raised among isolationist technophobes, but fair enough. Also, she has learned "Zimchai, the ancient language in which most medical and scientific terms are written." That's a new one. @jSarek might have something to say, but I'd argue for retconning it as the ancient Esselian language that ended up surviving mainly in Rhinnalian medical practice. Lorn/Corvus was a Rhinnal graduate who worked under Yrros in the Department of Military Research, but became disillusioned with the Empire and fled. No Jedi here, just Force-sensitive protagonists for the sake of Force-sensitive protagonists. We also get write-ups of gorsets, which are just Rhamalian horses, and the Moonrunners' SoroSuub 1550 yacht. Also of Rhamalai (population: approximately one Lahore worth of Space Amish, which is pretty good for five hundred initial settlers four hundred years ago . . . they've got to be hella inbred, though), which was settled by the separatist society of Cheri****es in an attempt to reject the Republic, and which subsequently largely fell out of contact with the galaxy given is technological predilections. They've lived simple, communal lives, eventually rising above the subsistence level and recently embracing the idea of global government, electing a capital city in Argona and erecting the Planetary Trade Directorate to oversee the global barter economy. There's also an Adventure Idea to have your characters as Rhamalian recruits, the day after Denel's escape, decide to find a means to escape themselves, with the base in chaos from the destruction but security increased.

The writing here is fair enough, but the story is disappointingly generic, with action that makes little sense and a simplistic boy-and-girl-and-evil-Empire setup. The occupation premise had some potential, as did the idea of Imperial medicine actually being a benefit to a primitive world, but it ended up as just cartoonishly totalitarian oppression. And as is usual for Adventure Journal story, there's a lot of setup for followup adventures (and unnecessary special Force-sensitive protagonists) that's never actually paid off, and not enough going on here and now in the story itself. It's fine for what it is, but I can't say I regret not getting the continuation.

Up next, Scouts' Dispatch returns.

 

Scouts' Dispatch returns for the first time since issue eight, for its third and final appearance.

Our scout narrator, Captain Korren Starchaser, explains that there are generally two motivations for scouts: the curious who enjoy the calling to explore, and are generally responsible, and the greedy, who are out to profit and will exploit the species they find. The New Republic Scout Service tries to filter those types out, but they're still out there operating independently. This conflict is currently illustrated in the Kriekaal system.

Kriekaal is a large world orbiting an old orange star, with a duranium core covered by oceans of molten metal, with the top layers having cooled into floating continents. Somehow, this hostile environment has engendered life, mostly lichens and reptiles adapted to the harsh conditions. There is one sentient species discovered so far, the Krieks. Starchaser and his people found them, and also discovered a legend of visitors from the stars who were swallowed up by the molten ocean, and scans found a large artificial mass buried in one of the newer continents, possibly a starship or colony outpost. Starchaser reported all this up and moved on, calling for further exploration, but a processing error at headquarters resulted in the information being released to the public prematurely, resulting in a rush by some mercenary scouts to exploit the find. That's the setup for an obvious adventure hook: going to Kriekaal to explore this artifact and running into hostile groups of unscrupulous scouts.

Now we get data dumps. Kriekaal is not an easy location to visit; it has high gravity and requires full environment suits. There are fourteen continents of cooled metal, and the planet is covered in pure duranium that could be profitably mined. It hosts one Virginia Beach's worth of stone-age Krieks along and slightly to the north of the equator in scattered settlements that science finds difficult to explain; the fact that life on the planet consists pretty much just of the Krieks and the lichens they eat suggests they may have been transplanted from elsewhere. The Krieks, who were unusually open and friendly during first contact, are reptilians three meters long and about one and a half meters tall at the shoulder. They're quadrupeds with the ability to stand upright briefly and have retractable opposable digits on their front legs.They have shells they can retract into, long necks, infrared vision, and an acute sense of touch that allows them to communicate through vibrations. They worship Br'lai, goddess of the fiery oceans, and T'kor, god of the planet's heat storms. They have nomadic shamans who commune more closely with the gods in isolation, and offer advice to tribes, which greatly revere them. The tribes control particular territories, and are led by patriarchs and their advisers, and protected by warriors who engage in only minor border scuffles. Families are large, since mating brings the two whole associated family units together. They record their history on their shells, and have names that grow over time to reflect their deeds. There are forty-three tribes, with some sub-tribes of the largest ones. They're sedentary, foraging throughout their village's area, but if a tribe gets too big for its village, some families will be sent out to found a new village and new sub-tribe. In necessity, Krieks can even cross the molten oceans by using thin sheets of metal to create gliders that ride the hot updraft of the oceans. The most powerful tribe are the Kherkhaman, who claim the northern continent and are led by the young heir of the previous patriarch, Kavakoderakanbnuarria. It's he who greeted Starchaser's team and welcomed them peacefully -- though the Krieks' pacifist approach to the outsiders is coming under stress from the more exploitative mercenary scouts who have shown up.

If you're going to visit the planet, you should come prepared with a lot of heat ablation material to protect your ship and an environment suit that can handle the heat. Sensors and instruments should also be shielded against the intense magnetic fields. The mystery object, meanwhile, is about three hundred by six hundred meters, buried thirty-four meters deep in a molten lake but rising steadily at a rate that should have it surface within weeks, likely due to some volcanic force. The area around it is, of course, especially hazardous to challenge your group, with heat storms common and some pools of molten "quicksand" dotting the area. plus intense magnetic anomalies that make it almost impossible to land a ship. The few scouting expeditions that have tried to land have been lost, keeping the rest holding their distance for now in an uneasy situation. The most dangerous of this group is a bunch of scouts named the Happy Blasters, who are happy to shoot their way to their target and shoot anybody else who gets there first. The leader of these wanted criminals has the ridiculous name Salem Victory, a bloodthirsty hunter and smuggler who looks like he belongs in a rock band circa 1969. There's also a tech named Mac, a violent psychopath named Wilko Brenggar who believes in reincarnation and so has no fear of death or compunctions about causing it, and a Nar Shaddan pirate named Dapp Solus. The trick to getting there, though, is that nobody has asked the Krieks about it -- they can set you up with their gliders to get there safely. There's also a shaman named Malketh who is Force-sensitive and can tell you about his dreams that the object will bring destruction, and you can track him down after he leaves the village and find the truth. Though the article never elaborates on exactly what that truth is.

As far as these things go, this is pretty solid. I like the concept of rivalry with disreputable scouts, and the planet is at least creative, with the focus as much on the crazy environment as on creating yet another tribe of primitive aliens to contact. It might have been nice to develop the mystery artifact out into something specific to work with, but other than that it's a pretty complete, very applicable article. Next time, we'll finish off this issue with Cynabar and ISB Intercepts.

 

ISB Intercepts, the Adventure Journal's gameplay question-and-answer column, is back, this time with answers from Eric Trautmann, and a focus on questions about WEG products.

The first question is about the 1994 announcement of The Jedi Sourcebook: where is it? The answer is that they had permission to make it, it was announced -- but the realization that the prequels were coming meant WEG put it on ice rather than release a whole sourcebook about Jedi training that might be contradicted within a few years by Lucas's new films. They'll release it eventually (of course, WEG went out of business beforehand), but not until they can be sure they're releasing something that won't waste buyers' money by being contradicted immediately.

Then we've got that Lando Calrissian Adventures Sourcebook that was supposed to be in development. It, too, has been indefinitely postponed -- but because surveys of their customers made it clear that such a sourcebook didn't draw much interest, and they're focusing their efforts on things their readers/players put a higher priority on. The Han Solo and the Lost Legacy Sourcebook has received the same fate -- it's your fault for not wanting it badly enough -- but there are plans for a Corporate Sector campaign set, and with the Han Solo Trilogy coming out, it's possible some new form of Han Solo sourcebook may see the light.

Will WEG ever make a galaxy map? Probably not. Apparently they asked to a few years ago and were denied. LFL actively wants there to be no map, since it's so likely to just create contradiction and confusion. Rather, WEG is more likely to focus its efforts on a gazetteer, which they're working on in some capacity.

How about that Courtship of Princess Leia Sourcebook we were promised? That's not going to happen. WEG is moving away from sourcebooks for every individual book or book series, primarily because it's a waste of time to reprint stats for the movie characters in each novel. Rather, the actual new material from multiple books will be collected in Cracken's Threat Dossier -- the new ships, planets, droids, species, and characters, without duplication of effort. This makes a certain amount of sense, though it also significantly limits WEG's ability to deepen the context and world around each book and draw connections the way it did with its TTT, JAT, and TAB sourcebooks. COPL alone surely had enough original material to justify its own sourcebook, which would also have been able to expand on things like Hapes and Zsinj; the BFC and the Callista trilogy likewise could surely have justified their own sourcebooks. The original intent for Cracken's Threat Dossier is especially overcrowded -- we're told that it's meant to include information from COPL, BFC (both of which ended up in it, along with the unmentioned Corellian Trilogy), COTJ, TCS, and TNR (all of which ultimately went basically un-sourcebooked).

Why isn't there an ISB Intercepts in every issue? Because you damn people don't write enough. This one alone is taking two years' worth of questions. Send them more letters in general; they like feedback.

They need letters for feedback, because they don't even have the internet yet. Back in 1997, a major gaming company could still answer the question "Does West End Games have a web-site?" with "Not yet." Naw, they haven't gotten around to it. They do have email, though! Send mail to the editors at WEGEdit@aol.com. "If you are trying to contact a specific editor, please indicate his or her name in the 'Subject' or 'Regarding' box." If you want to do art for WEG, email WestEndArt@aol.com. And if you want to get their catalog or order directly from them, send an email to WEGSales@aol.com and ask for Carl Klinger.

Definitely an interesting insight on where WEG was at, in terms of overall direction, at that time -- not that long before the whole company went down the drain and their future plans became irrelevant.

Cynabar's Droids Datalog concludes the issue. It's a bit of a follow-up to Cynbar's Fantastic Technology: Droids, a sourcebook released a month before the cover date. Everybody's favorite smuggler gossip has decided to keep the datalog ongoing, since so many smugglers use or sell droids.

First, it breaks down droid classifications. First degree droids are usually designed for science, medicine, or mathematics, and usually have advanced personality programming to work with organic counterparts. Second degree droids are designed for engineering or maintenance functions and purely functional, with less emphasis on organic interaction, like astromechs. Third degree droids are the most common source of interaction with droids; they're made for social purposes like education, protocol, translation. Fourth degree droids are used for combat, and are usually banned in many systems. Fifth degree droids are simplistic, used for menial functions like salvage, mining, and hauling where the distinction between droids and simple robotic systems are less clear.

Then we get into droid personalities. There are, yet again, five classes of droid personality. Some droids have no personality matrices and thus no personality; they're artificial intelligences, but incapable of doing much more than responding yes or no and taking commands. Simple personalities are for droids that interact little with organics, and are largely dominated by a single quality. Elementary personality matrices are slightly more complex, for droids that are expected to have some minimal interactions, like astromechs with their pilots. Advanced personality programming is for droids that are expected to regularly interact with organics and hold conversations for limited purposes, like medical droids. Droids with sustained interaction are given complex personalities designed to duplicate the appearance of sentience, with apparent emotions and the ability for sophisticated interactions, like protocol droids.

The listing of droids is then broken down by degrees, though we only get to first and second degree units. First up is Industrial Automaton's 2-ZH surgical droid, a military version of the 2-1B, widely used in Imperial prison medbays. The 2-ZHb is common on Imperial capital ships and in some garrisons. Cynabar's associates provide comments on each droid; here we learn that the model is accused of designed obsolescence in their skill modules, while another commentator says his mercenary unit has used one just fine, and the problems may be exclusive to a shipment that was hijacked near Kothlis to feed the thriving black market for medical equipment.

The Industrial Automaton MD-5 general practitioner medical droid is a pioneering general practice medical droid, building on the MD-0 diagnostic droids and MD-3 pharmaceutical droids. One major quirk, however, is that the droids are built off what was originally a security droid matrix repurposed when the line was canceled. This, our commenters note, means they can be repurposed as security droids with the installation of a security chip and some stun weaponry. They provide a significant element of surprise, though they remain unwilling to use lethal force and with poor targeting unless you update the sensor modules as well.

The AccuTronics MK 8001 attendant droid targets the widely ignored family market that AccuTronics has specialized in. It's basically a nurse/nanny droid with basic medial programming, the ability to rapidly contact medical facilities with a built-in comlink, and a comfortingly humanoid appearance. It's designed to provide care for the young or ill, respond to emergencies, and provide companionship with its complex personality matrix. They're AccuTronics' most successful line, and thus quite profitable if you can find a cheap source and turn around and sell them to wealthy families who want droid nannies or caretakers for the elderly or infirm.

The TelBrinTel S2R science research droid was designed for Imperial bioweapon and chemical weapon research projects, and were also used in more general Imperial engineering research. They have highly advanced personalities as well as scientific instruments, and have been so successful the S2R(A) has been introduced as a civilian model with hardwired restrictions against military research. Those restrictions can be defeated -- but our commenters note that there's a secret subroutine that takes over when the system is modified that lead the droids to sabotage any research to render the product nonfunctional. These can be further countered, but it takes a very talented slicer.

Lastly, there's one second degree droid: the Serv-O-Droid 87-RM scout collector droid. This droid is designed for scouting expeditions, collecting and flash-freezing biological samples located and stunned by counterpart scout droids. They hover on repulsorlifts and are basically just big flash-freezing units with arms. The Empire discontinued their use after one unit went rogue and attacked hundreds of colonists on Corva Yag. One commenter suspects the droid might have been modified or sabotaged to go rogue, suggesting the Rebels, while a commenter who appears to be Toria Tell speculates it was more likely an Imperial modification or droid-reprogramming weapon system, or perhaps the result of the colonists finding some kind of Imperial facility they weren't supposed to.

There's nothing wrong with the material here, though it's a rather thin feature with the rather oddly constrained focus on first degree droids and one second degree. There's not a whole ton of elaboration outside the stat blocks, but not a ton is really called for, so they might as well not try to make too much out of a handful of droids.

That closes out this issue, a solid one overall. We'll be back with the penultimate (published) issue of the Adventure Journal. Stick around for a Callista-on-Gamorr story from Barbara Hambly, a lecture from Corellia Antilles, an action-packed Boba Fett short story from Paul Danner, and a Newcomb/Handley collaboration, among a great deal more material of the usual sort.

 

I still mourn the loss of that Lando Calrissian Adventures Sourcebook...

 

The Rogue Squadron sourcebook was the one that I wanted most.

 

By 1995 Bantam had new novels arriving on a more-or-less monthly basis, and Dark Horse was busily cranking out material as well. It might well have been that WEG just couldn't produce source material fast enough to keep up with the rate at which new novels and comics were coming out.

 

I can't recommend enough Bill Slavicsek's recount of the tale, it's fascinating and the end still bothers me... (although I must confess my collection grew twofold by using the warehouse sale at the time...)

 

The Star Wars Adventure Journal 14 is here! We've come a long way in fourteen issues, all the way from February 1994, when the Bantam EU was just getting into gear, to August 1997, the heyday of the Bantam era. This is the second-to-last issue of the Adventure Journal that would be published, as West End Games would soon go bankrupt (though three more issues of the magazine were in the works at various stages when everything stopped). It's also the last Adventure Journal overseen by original editor Peter Schweighofer, as we're about to learn.

Admiral's Communique, long absent, returns here for a special message from "Commander" Peter Schweighofer. He's moving out of editing the Adventure Journal -- he doesn't make it sound like his choice -- and into "administration and game design." Former TSR editor/designer Steve Miller will be taking over going forward, flying like an eagle into the future. There are the usual thanks to those who have worked with him to make this wonderful project possible, including the readers; authors like Zahn, Stackpole, and Tyers who have actively supported the Journal; and above all George Lucas, who made it all possible. It's universal to the point of cliche to thank Lucas for creating this amazing world that so many people have played around in, but these days especially it's worth considering just how amazing his accomplishments in making these films were, and how incredible his generosity in sharing his universe with others has been. I'll close with Schweighofer's closing sentence: "Through their involvement with the Journal, everyone -- readers, authors, editors, and creators -- has become part of the Star Wars dream."

With the reappearance of Admiral's Communique, however, a constant feature disappears: there's no New Horizons here. This certainly isn't because there's nothing coming out to promote. Heck, WEG has ads for Pirates and Privateers and Instant Adventures right where one would expect New Horizons to be. The fact that it's also gone from issue 15 -- I peeked -- suggests that WEG has decided that it's simply not worth the page space to cross-promote products that readers are likely already aware of from other sources, and that space would be better dedicated to the Journal doing what it does well and does unique from the other fan magazines -- providing content.

That means that the Adventure Journal gets right into it with Barbara Hambly's Callista short story, set between Darksaber and Planet of Twilight, Murder in Slushtime. We will too when we return.

 

Murder in Slushtime is Barbara Hambly's last Star Wars work, a short story featuring Callista between the events of Darksaber and Planet of Twilight. Hambly's first and only contribution to the Adventure Journal, it stars Hambly's signature original character, Callista, among the Gamorreans, whom Hambly had used in Children of the Jedi, and whose culture had been heavily elucidated in WEG publications, notably including the Adventure Journal's own A Free-Trader's Guide to the Planets.

It begins with Callista Ming -- this is where that particular surname, later, probably rightly, implied to be only a pseudonym borrowed from Cray Mingla, was introduced -- reflecting on the unloveliness of Gamorr during the wet, fungus-riddled spring season, known as slushtime. She appears to be bumming around as part of a freighter's crew. This freighter appears a particularly undesirable place to end up, as it's Gamorrean-run and she and an engineer named Jos are the only humans on the crew, and Jos is there because he's a slave. After a conversation that reveals Captain Ugmush, the sow who runs the freighter, isn't enthused by the idea of her brother Guth fighting in a tournament tomorrow, who should show up but Guth, hotly pursued by some angry boars? Callista runs out and heads off the pursuit with her lightsaber, also holding Ugmush back from getting stupidly involved in a fight. Also notable is that Hambly offhandedly mentions the generic term "buzz-droid" here, which would of course end up being applied to the sabotage droids in ROTS in one of those weird bits of unexpected synchronicity. Anyway, it turns out that Guth's fight was going to be against the powerful warlord Vrokk, challenging him for the hand of the matron sow, but Guth, who appears to be of the hapless idiot type of brother, is now suspected of murdering him before the tournament.

Everybody's hustled off to the Hold of Bolgoink, where Vrokk's brother Rog, the warlord of Nudskutch, thinks that the whole crew was in on the murder. They're brought before Kufbrug, the Bolgoink matron that the conflict was over, who's also mother of Gundruk, Rog's wife and the matron of the small hamlet Nudskutch. Rog is adamant that Vrokk was killed with outlander poison, and here are some outlanders who crew the outlander ship run by Guth's sister. It's all so plain and simple, so logical! Ugmush and her crew, being Gamorreans, lose their tempers and get hauled away, leaving Callista to try to make sense of things with the VIPs (retaining her lightsaber, she's also the only one who didn't get chained up and can't just get hustled away). Gundruk brandishes as evidence a letter supposedly written by Guth that contained poison that, when the seal was broken, "flew up into his nose and destroyed his brain." Hambly's having some fun writing stupid, semi-literate characters. Callista examines the letter, trying to use the Force, only to get very little except the temptation to call on the dark side to destroy these stupid, evil creatures that oppose her. Callista points out the letter could be forged, but it's volunteered that it matches the love letters Guth has been sending Kufbrug for years, though curiously to Callista, Guth is almost certainly illiterate like almost every other boar. Also, the spirit of Vrokk can be heard in the locked room where he died, and spirits only pace when they're murdered, duh. Callista gets all excited at that and gets Kufbrug's permission to go off with the letter and investigate.

Callista treks off to Jugsmuk, site of a big upcoming fair due to its relatively advanced landing field, by Gamorrean standards. She thinks she can solve the mystery of the illiterate's letters, so she heads to where there are a few outlanders at the trading station and finds Sebastin Onyx, who ghostwrites love poetry for courting boars for pay. He wrote that last letter for a mysterious boar who said he was Guth's friend -- and said he'd seal it himself later. She gets from him the name of a couple shady merchants who might have sold poison, and gets an enzymer from a bartender to identify the poison. We're told that enzymers, used to identify substances, are a necessity of life for species off their own worlds, especially at cosmopolitan locations like spaceports full of substances, potentially adulterated, from all over the galaxy. It's a nice, realistic mention of the kind of thing you don't often see, an acknowledgement of the complexities of galactic civilization full of aliens from all different worlds, rather than the blithe assumption that basically every planet is easily habitable for basically every species with no environmental issues.

She buys a few things and heads back to Bolgoink, where she takes her purchases up to Vrokk's room. She has to stop Lugh, Vrokk's second-in-command, from going in to the supposedly haunted room. She waits until daylight to go in herself, as daylight makes whatever she's worried is actually in the room safe. Then she sets up her deal -- a safety observation cage in a corner near the windows, and a set of metal panels in the corner that should gather the most sunlight. Then she goes to find Kufbrug, who remains, as the first time Callista saw her, strangely listless. Callista explains what she found: a parasite was sealed inside the wax, released when the seal was broken in order to kill Vrokk. The letter had Guth's name on it, but wasn't from him. She wants Kufbrug to observe that night with her, to see the creature that killed Vrokk and is still trapped in the room, and use it to find the identity of the killer. Kufbrug seems to buy this weird, independent outsider, so she says okay.

Kufbrug stays in the cage, while Callista is outside to catch the creature: a kheilwar, or homunculus-wasp, from Af'El. While they wait, Kufbrug mentions that she had thought about running off with Guth -- she actually likes him, unlike Vrokk, but nobody could beat Vrokk in a fight for her hand. Finally the thing comes out of a crack. It's a big, flat, light-absorbing, finned shadow bug thing, and a very dangerous predator. It's extremely fast, though at least now it's too big to fly up her nose and kill her. She's challenged just to keep it off her, let alone drive it into the mirrored corner until daytime like she'd planned. Once again, she feels the temptation to use the dark side to fight it. As she's having a hard time, Kufbrug comes out of the cage, grabs some weapons off the wall, and helps drive it back. Eventually, they wear it down and pin it in the corner, with daylight coming on. So then it deploys its other defense mechanism, and imitates those it's observed. First it takes on the appearance of the Rodian dealer who sold it. Then Vrokk. Then Rog. Then Gundruk. We've got our murderers. Finally the full sun disorients and overwhelms it, and Callista's able to strike it down.

Rog and Gundruk flee after Kufbrug challenges them to ritual combat, leaving Kufbrug and Guth free to marry. Callista surreptitiously frees Jos at the wedding feast, and explains that Gundruk probably plotted to murder Vrokk and frame Guth, knowing that her depressive mother would be devastated by Guth's death and could be set up for a faked suicide, which with Vrokk dead would allow her to make a bid to take over the clan.

This is Barbara Hambly's best work. While I'm not particularly high on Hambly, I think she is, in general, underrated. Her novels are torpid, weird, and a bit messy, but they generally have some really interesting ideas at the core and explore some interesting, humanizing character angles. I wouldn't call them good, but they're interesting and worth some consideration, and Hambly has some talent that deserves more respect than the unadulterated scorn her works usually get. Here, on the other hand, there's no languid dream-logic, no weirdo detours. It's just a tight little murder mystery with a sense of humor, but also empathy, for the dimwitted barbarians it does a good job of worldbuilding for. There's understated character work, functional action, and nobody ends up in a torpid drug haze. It's a good, enjoyable package for a Star Wars story to have, and it works just as well as Star Wars adventure as any story the Adventure Journal has run, with the benefit that Hambly is a polished, professional author rather than an enthusiastic semi-amateur.

What follows is an unusually extensive writeup by Timothy O'Brien. Callista gets a full three-page recap of her known backstory and the plots of COTJ and Darksaber. The other characters also get writeups, thought the only really new material is on Jos, who's from Lianna and was captured by pirates while serving as an engineer on a bulk freighter and sold into slavery.

There's also a bunch on the Gamorrean year, with its seasons of slushtime in the spring, wartime in the summer, croptime in the fall, and coldtime in winter. This is just a slight expansion on the information O'Brien already laid out about the cycle of Gamorrean life in A Free-Trader's Guide to the Planets. There's also a discussion of the fairs that are held in slushtime and croptime, allowing Gamorreans to mingle, trade, and engage in personal combat. Plus a section on Gamorrean honor, which notes that boars' purpose is to fight, and it is considered honorable to engage in melee combat to the death, to defeat, or to first blood, but not to kill by ranged weapons, "magic," stealth, or contrivance. Just good old-fashioned brute-force fighting. Being clever is, in general, looked down on. Most of the material on Gamorrean society is a restatement of O'Brien's previous article, but there's also some new material on Gamorrean animism -- they believe that there are spirits in most things that persist and interact with the world. There's also a tiny bit on Gamorrean runes, both obviously in response to Hambly's introduction of these concepts in the story. Finally there's a bit on Jugsmuk Station, the trading emporium with the offworlder population. There's little in the way of amenities at the landing field, which doesn't have any control tower, and while the whole outpost is supposed to be off-limits in clan warfare, it's heavily defended just in case. Three businesses get writeups: The Irrational Number, the Bith-owned bar with the enzymer, Sheebareevadee's Emporium of Interstellar Goods, a general store run by a lazy Squib, and Momma Reseros's Diner, a restaurant run by an antisocial Chevin that offers some of the only offworld-style food on the planet.

With twenty-five pages of followup, this is basically an article in itself that just happens to be attached to a relevant short story. While much of this information happens to be restated from a previous article, I like this as a concept. Not every short story will need this treatment, but for those that get at some interesting ideas, it can be worth the space to spend more effort fleshing out its world-building. It's neat, it complements the story well, and I can think of several stories that could have benefited from this concept.

Next up, a pretty unique short story from Jean Rabe set on Gelgelar.

 

Jean Rabe contributed last issue's short story Day of the Sepulchral Night, which was pretty good aside from not knowing how water works. The Breath of Gelgelar is her second Adventure Journal short story, and third contribution overall. It's also her last. We'll be seeing more of Gelgelar, however, which will pop up throughout several more pieces in this issue. It's a setting that goes a way back in the Adventure Journal, and was fully fleshed out in Platt's Starport Guide.

We begin with a Glarsaur in the swamps of Gelgelar, looking up at a reeho bird. This Glarsaur is Kel, and he's near an assembly of adult Glarsaurs scheming to lure the Sullustan mold farmers nearby out into the swamp. The reeho narrowly escapes, which is good, because it turns out the protagonist here is actually the reeho. Or more accurately, T'laerean Larn, the Sullustan using the Force to project his senses into the reeho and spy on the Glarsaurs, the native species that's inexplicably hostile, given the settlers don't intrude on their territory, the Glarsaurs being very few. He's learned his skill with the Force -- the Breath of Gelgelar -- from the Wise Man of Kooroo. But he's still at the stage where he needs, or believes he needs, to be in contact with the creature to transfer his consciousness back, so he urgently persuades the bird to return to him -- only for it to be caught by a couple of kids who bring it to their mom, who wants to make a stew with it. Oh no! He was fantasizing about being a huge hero, and here's he's going to be dinner. And he's not sure what that means, since he's never used this technique before, let alone considered this kind of situation. He panics, he thinks of ways to try to get out, tries to persuade the bird to do this or that . . . only for the bird to eventually ignore him and start chewing its way out of the wicker bin it's in on its own.

Only for it to fly into one of the little girls, stunning the bird. She takes it back to her sister, and they talk about the bird, and about the weird loner Force-obsessed boy whose house they caught it in the first time around. They're pretty sure he's dead, since they saw him lying senseless when they grabbed the bird. With some pretty messed-up child-logic, they decide they can hide the bird from their mom inside T'laerean's house so they can keep him as a pet -- they just have to bury the body so no one will know T'laerean's dead and they can still use his house. I'm seeing a lot of holes in this plan and also these are some sociopath children. They take the bird over in a sack and let it out, whereupon it flies away. It's fed up with T'laerean trying to prod it and it's long since stopped listening to his direction, yet his senses are still trapped with it as it takes off.

It flies out to where T'laerean can see the mold farmers, out harvesting, about to fall into a Glarsaur trap. The bird flies into the swamp -- only for the same Glarsaur kid to see it again, to break cover and try to grab it, to run after it, spoiling the ambush and alerting the farmers. The bird gets eaten.

And T'laerean doesn't die. He wakes up to the little girl and the Wise Man of Kooroo rousing him. The Wise Man stopped in early, and found T'laerean weak and endangered, but he was able to save him. T'laerean has learned that he has limitations, that he has been too ambitious in his dreams of glory. As he says to the Wise Man, "Perhaps the Force is strong in me. But I am not yet so strong in it."

We learn in the writeups that T'laerean was born on Gelgelar, but when his parents got tired of mold farming and returned to Sullust, he refused to leave, having met the Wise Man and become obsessed with learning the Force from him. I guess that explains why he can be unconscious in a house to himself despite being a kid. Glarsaurs are brutish, carnivorous reptiles, dim but sentient, one to one and a half meters tall that use spears and clubs. They're unremittingly hostile but have sometimes cooperated with the criminal element on Gelgelar in exchange for weapons and food. Settlers have tried to negotiate or reason with them, but they're only ever attacked in response. There's also a writeup of Merge Senses, the new Force power displayed here. It allows a Force user to perceive through the senses of an animal, which the Force user does not control but can influence. The simpler or more natural or unthreatening the suggestion, the more likely the animal will comply. The person's body is immobile and insensate until the creature is released, which doesn't actually require physical proximity. If the creature takes damage during the bond, the player, in gameplay terms, takes half damage, reflecting apparently the trauma of feeling the creature's death or pain.

It's a short but effective story. It's not rip-roaring traditional Star Wars adventure, but it's got the quality of a parable to it, a little lesson on the Force, and it does have plenty of tension. It uses a naive youth protagonist well, and is pretty unique and creative. It's nothing profound, but it's fun and fresh and thoughtful, and I'll take it over yet another generic smuggler adventure.

Next up, another Special Ops article from John Beyer and Kathy Burdette.

 

Special Ops: Drop Points is here to teach us about the best points to drop, or the best way to drop points, or the best drops to use with your point, or something like that. We'll find out! It's another in the series of Special Ops articles-mixed-with-a-vignette-about-their-pet-SpecOps-squad series John Beyer and Kathy Burdette started last issue. Longtime artist Burdette isn't the illustrator here; our friend Chris Trevas is.

We start with a selection from our vignette; the Adventure Journal loves a good vignette. It's got a Colonel Stijhl, who's distressed to learn that Major Haathi, leader of our SpecOps squad, has just landed. Because she's trouble, get it! Meanwhile, Morgan Raventhorn is working aboard the ship, but something deadly is in it, stalking the unit!

Then we get to some article. The Alliance has secret meeting points and supply caches hidden across the galaxy in unobtrusive locations. These drop points are key to allowing the Rebellion, and especially its Special Operations units, to keep fighting on covertly. A lot of effort is spent on maintaining the security of these secret drop points. They're run by Ordnance and Supply, which is starting to deploy more high-level supply officers forward to interface with the teams, which has significantly improved the organization and systematization of the program. The drop points are also now frequently used by intelligence officers for field briefings and debriefings.

Stijhl meets Haathi; they're old colleagues with a testy relationship, and she came here after last issue's mission mostly to show off her new ship and new rank of major; Stijhl himself has been promoted from major since the last time she saw him, so it's not quite as impressive. But they also need supplies, and that's Stijhl's job. Well, it's somebody named Maglenna Pendower's job, specifically, so Stijhl gets here up there and while they're all bantering Morgan chimes in on the intercom to tell them to brace themselves and then the power goes out on the ship and everybody runs to find her. Pendower, who's trained as a mechanic, finds her, electrocuted from fiddling with the power grid during her repairs, and works with Jayme to start reviving her. I like the detail that there are insulated grounding rods in the shipboard emergency kits for dealing with electrical issues; a smart precaution. They pull out an automatic defibrillator kit and get her going again. While everything gets sorted out, Jayme voices his certainty that this wasn't an accident.

Back to the article portion. Drop points are, unlike Rebel bases, not established with permanence in mind. They're designed to be places field operatives get to, to be accessible, and it's unlikely they can evade Imperial detection for too long. They're made to function, then get packed up and move on. They may only be one-time facilities. Usually at least three are set up to support any given mission, with the forces involved briefed on their location before they go out, giving them options. A lot of effort goes into finding suitable sites, which are never reused -- old warehouses, abandoned factories, remote docking bays, or if you don't need to accommodate a ship, something as basic as a garage or remote rooftop. Then the effort goes into securing them, using payoffs and relationships to make sure the Rebels are unobserved and unbetrayed. To limit the potential losses of discovery, many drop sites are unmanned, just small equipment caches. They may be booby-trapped, or have a droid or paid local as a cutout point of contact. Passwords and such are used to regulate access, and the commanders of the larger manned sites have to be ready to evacuate at any moment. We get some information on the drop site portrayed in our story, in an old warehouse on Gelgelar (it's the Gelgelar issue!) rented from the Rodian crimelord Slerog Fenn who uses it as a smuggling depot for hire, and its staff, consisting of Colonel Arik Stijhl, Lady Pendower, Lieutenant Bendlar Kovings as communications and flight deck officer, Sergeant Lisa Mandrake in charge of a ten-man security team, and Sergeant Krugh Agovast running a sixteen-man maintenance and freight-handling crew.

Then we get Maglenna, who's sitting with an incoherent Morgan and finds what made Jayme so suspicious: a welt on Morgan's wrist. Cut to Jayme, who's tracked what he thinks is the escape route of whatever attacked Morgan into a maintenance tunnel under the warehouse. As he's trying to head it off from the exit, the power in the hangar goes out. Jayme runs for the manual override to the hangar doors, having figured out that the whatever-he-suspects-it-is will try to trap them in the warehouse and kill them all. Before he can open it, though, he foe catches up with him and blows the manual controls as Jayme flees. It's an assassin droid that was in the cargo on their stolen ship!

Then there's a section telling us how useful drop points can be to your game. It should be fairly obvious how having a temporary place to hole up and recover but also remain in potential peril of discovery can have gameplay potential. They can also be places to introduce new information, new equipment, or new players. Using drop points at a variety of different locations instead of having the characters operate from one home base can also add some variety and flavor to a campaign and more of a cinematic, galaxy-hopping Star Wars effect.

Stijhl brings in Nofre Ecls, local Sullustan engineer and repair bay operator, secret Rebel agent, and sister of the Sullustan who runs the Gelgelar shadowport, to help figure out what the power malfunction was that took Morgan out. Meanwhile, Jayme's still running from the assassin droid, headed toward the rafters of the four-story warehouse.

Drop point protocols under the Rebellion include that their primary purpose should be to restock operatives and undercover agents, with the secondary purpose as repair depots, providing first aid, and planning and procurement where appropriate. They should be placed throughout areas of ongoing operations, where they're accessible. Sometimes sites are placed in deep space. They should have a preset duration after which they're evacuated, whether they've been used or not. Operatives should be briefed on access procedures on a need-to-know basis. They should be manned as necessary, SpecOps teams should get priority access, and security is non-negotiable.

Ecls is working on the power circuit, and explains that she'll have to rewire the whole thing to Haathi, who doesn't want to spend days on it. She wants to be able to evacuate Morgan now. When Ecls explains that she can't hotwire the core directly to the engine, because then you wouldn't have any safeguards to prevent a power spike from blowing the ship up, Haathi explodes with, "Is that all?" She wants it hotwired! The Wraith-style comedy in this series is really the best part about it.

As Stijhl leaves the ship, he finds the power out, the doors locked down, several crew dead, and his security people shooting up and something chasing somebody through the rafters. It's not exactly what he expected. And that's before crates start blowing up and the assassin droid starts picking off his security staff. He orders Nord, the hapless medic, to get Haathi to get the ship up so they can evacuate, but then he gets shot.

Jayme, cornered, attacks the floating assassin droid and tries to escape, but he winds up danging, caught in its tentacles. The tentacle snaps and he crashes through a lot of plastiboard all the way to the floor of the warehouse. He's lost his blasters, but he grabs a pair of hull cutters from the maintenance floor and runs into Maglenna pulling Morgan toward the ship. Maglenna saves him from a blast, and as the droid swoops down to attack, Jayme takes it out with the heavy-duty hull cutters. Then he notices the countdown on one of its panels. Time to get out of here! Everybody makes it to the ship and they finally take off, just flying straight through the bay doors.

At the end, Morgan explains what happened, after some research. The ship they stole belonged to Sythluss Leethe, but they didn't do too much research on just who he is. Turns out he's a Sluissi illegal droid manufacturer, and this droid was his latest project. It activated itself when they landed and went on a rampage. Stijhl's still pretty ticked, though, and he orders Haathi to steal back replacements for all the supplies she's cost him. She agrees, if she can swap cool-under-fire Maglenna for the useless Nord. It's a deal!

Stijhl, we learn in the writeups, was an Old Republic Navy supply officer with a good reputation for getting the job done, so OaS sought him out and put him in its Inner Rim division. He used to be the supply officer at a training base where Haatha was the wildly unpredictable, territory-infringing flight instructor, so they didn't get along too well. Now he's in charge of running drop points, which he's extremely good at. Lady Maglenna Pendower was formerly on Leia's senatorial staff, where she not only performed routine senatorial-aide duties but also helped gather information and plan Rebel operations, but was never allowed in the field. When the Senate was dissolved and Alderaan destroyed, she lost her father and a brother, and her other brother remains missing (it's not clear if her mother was already dead or survived), as well as losing her day job. She took training as a combat medic to get into the action, and graduated top her class, but Leia insisted she was too valuable to risk and sent her to help revamp the drop point program with Stijhl instead, and has denied every request to transfer since. But now she can finally get out into the action! I'd complain about her being tied to Leia, and not any other senator, but the character is actually borrowed from a Schweighofer vignette in the Shadows of the Empire Sourcebook where she appears in her role as a senatorial aide helping Leia rescue Spero.

There's also a writeup on the droid, which is a pretty neat design. The Doom Slayer assassin droid is a custom design by Leethe. It's armored and shielded, with special electrochemical camouflage paint. It's got a tremendous power core and the failsafes to self-destruct with a huge blast whenever it's rendered non-functional. It's armed with blaster, micro-grenade launchers, and capture tentacles. It floats on repulsors and can pack down into a sphere when inactive, but when inactive a head and dangling tail sections fold out, giving it a Sluissi-like appearance. Leethe hired it out only for very high-end hits, and has used it to kill five major smuggling bosses.

Notably, the article doesn't waste time on writeups of all the existing Special Ops characters who got writeups just last issue.

That was a pretty fun piece. There's not really a ton of information to the article component, but the drop point concept is a pretty straightforward one once you introduce it and there's not a whole lot to do with it. There's a bit of additional information introduced with a cool new assassin droid design, but the main attraction is the story. Which, as narrative, is nothing special -- there's a reason it works better as an illustrative vignette than a standalone short story -- just a straightforward assassin-droid-on-the-loose bit of action, but it's got some genuine wit and humor to its bunch of loony Wraithlike commandos that makes it a much more endearing and entertaining piece than the pure action of the story would justify. The integration between story and article is also fun, livening both up so that there's a depth of information to go along with a generic story and a story to bring some excitement to the presentation of the information.

On the next page, before we get to our next feature, there's a simple notice titled In Memoriam: Clifford Wilson III. Wilson was the president of Black Hawk Hobby Distributors, a major gaming wholesaler that's been distributing West End Games's material for years. So if you ever bought a West End sourcebook, or any other gaming stuff, you may have Clifford Wilson to thank. He was also majority owner of historical miniatures manufacturer Minifigs. The piece emphasizes that Wilson did a good job setting his businesses up and things will continue smoothly with him gone, but he leaves behind a wife Sheila, a twelve-year-old daughter Lindsay, and an eight-year-old son, Clifford Wilson IV, after dying of a heart attack while driving at the age of thirty-eight, much too young. A fund has been set up for his children.

Up next: Star Wars meets Indiana Jones in From the Files of Corellia Antilles! This should be fun.

 

We've met Corellia Antilles before, as she drew a mention in The Gree Enclave in issue eight. A xenoarchaeologist with a familiar place-name/common-surname name, she's a pretty blatant female, Star Wars riff on Indiana Jones. But that's just fine with me! And with Tim O'Brien, who's written From the Files of Corellia Antilles to present us with some fun archaeological hooks. It's in the format of a lecture by Dr. Antilles, "a leading expert on artifact recovery" and consultant to the New Republic on such matters, at the Galactic Museum soon after the capture of Coruscant.

The lecture begins with a bit of galactic history that's pretty interesting: history is long, with thousands of pre-hyperspace civilizations that rose and fell without any outside contact. In a fascinating number, there's said to be five hundred thousand years of recorded galactic history, with another five hundred thousand unrecorded or undeciphered years before that. That gives the galaxy not only a striking million years of history for intelligent life, but also recorded history that goes back far beyond the twenty-five-thousand-year mark for the Republic's creation, which has been traditionally treated by most sources as the barrier beyond which galactic history becomes murky and more or less unknowable, despite it making no real sense that advanced, space-traveling civilizations should leave no records or knowledge of their history to their progeny. This is actually a much more sensible, if staggeringly huge (we only have about three thousand years of recorded history) span of time for galactic historians to understand, even if out-of-universe forces would prefer to treat the creation of the Republic as the beginning of history and leave everything before that as murky ground for ancient-alien civilizations and myth and shadow (my favorite is still the Corellian repulsor digs in the Corellian Trilogy being the first archaeological digs on Corellia ever).

Corellia is here to talk about archaeological plundering by Imperials. Archaeology is generally a painstaking, slow, and precise project, but when raiders steal valuable artifacts, they can do tremendous damage. Imperial officials are the leading patrons of the market in plundered and stolen artifacts. Palpatine himself was a leading force behind the search for any kind of Jedi artifacts, which did great violence to many historical sites. Some of these plundered artifacts floating around out there may be highly dangerous -- she cites Jedi, Sith, Gree, and Tundan (a Sorcerers of Tund reference!!!) artifacts as the kind of things that might be powerful and hazardous. She cites as examples of damage that's already been done the exploitation of "his master's" -- presumably Palpatine's -- artifact hoard by Dark Adept Glynis Tor, which sounds fascinating but Tor doesn't even have a Wookieepedia article, this reference is so obscure and un-followed-up, Vader's quest for the Kaiburr Crystal, and Rokur Gepta's attempts to manipulate powerful ancient artifacts (the Mindharp of Sharu, obviously, but this implies he may have been after yet more ancient relics -- and who doesn't love a good Lando Calrissian Adventures reference?), as well as the historical rise of the Krath based on Sith artifacts (I always wished people had done more with the Krath as a separate cultic tradition). There's also the issue of further looting in the wake of Imperial site exploitation, as well as the fact that there's been looting of the many museums on Coruscant during the New Republic takeover (and presumably further opportunities for looting throughout the conflict as planets have fallen, putting many pieces on the black market). Now we get to the meat: a list of several locations of concern.

The first is the Sith tombs of Korriban. If you're going to go into Indiana Jones-style Star Wars archaeology, what better place to start than the dark, mystic tombs of the Sith Lords and their potent, creepy relics? It is a harsh, unwelcoming world of heat, cold, sandstorms, and predators. Travel to it was banned under the Empire, but that has since lapsed, and it's implied the NR hasn't put it off limits yet; even so, nobody visits. The Valley of the Dark Lords is full of tombs cut from the valley walls, with a central building, thought to be a temple -- this could line up fairly well with the KOTOR Sith Academy. It's said that spirits and droids (also lining up with KOTOR) attack trespassers, besides all the weird predators, and few Sith relics from Korriban have showed up on the market, despite how richly the tombs are said to be furnished with grave goods. It's not an easily plundered location, and during the Old Republic, few ventures were made for official expeditions, all closely Jedi-supervised. The Empire closed off all the Sith worlds, heavily guarding them and deleting the data on their locations from the records, with only Palpatine's adepts allowed to access them. With so little now known about them, there's a danger of some of Palpatine's surviving adepts lurking on Sith worlds, possibly in possession of powerful artifacts or ancient fortresses. These worlds should be explored, with Korriban the best starting place.

One set of important treasures: Empress Teta's crown jewels. Teta, a figure so tremendous her whole system was renamed after her, left behind a set of crown jewels and personal accouterments that are accounted one of the wonders of the galaxy. They vanished when the Krath took over the system, stolen by a Tetan loyalist. They've slowly been reacquired, but a few items remain outstanding, most notably her paired knives, for which there's a million-credit reward.

On Ossus (O'Brien's getting his mileage out of TOTJ) there was once a great center of Jedi learning before the supernova devastated the planet. Today, it's inhabited only by a few descendants of marooned spacers, but some Jedi artifacts may remain. Luke Skywalker found at least some, which I guess puts this lecture after the recapture of Coruscant, not the capture. There's a related sidebar with an adventure prompt for an archaeological, Jedi, or both team to visit Ossus, overcome the dangers, and start a dig, only for Travgen to show up. Travgen is a dark sider who didn't serve the Emperor, but was hunted by the Empire as well, and fled to Ossus. He's been studying and gathering power for twenty years, enslaving some of the Ossan tribes. He's very powerful, and will attack the expedition, but he's ultimately a coward who will flee until you corner him in his lair.

If Xim the Despot is Star Wars' Alexander the Great, Uueg Tching is its combination Sun Tzu and Confucius, a conqueror who united Kitel Phard under the Atrisian dynasty and left behind his Sayings, a book of wisdom on war, diplomacy, and philosophy. They've been prized ever since, with a long political legacy, originally closely held by his successors, then circulated among the nobility to glorify the monarchy some fifteen hundred years ago, and finally released to the public five hundred fifty years ago in a more democratic gesture after the Atrisian Parliament reduced the imperial monarchy's power. Palpatine acquired the original manuscripts twelve years ago, at which point they vanished into his private holdings. During the New Republic's drive to Coruscant, most of Palpatine's holdings were evacuated from the planet to private storehouses, and the Sayings are believed to be among them. One of the shuttles carrying the collection crashed, but they weren't on its registry. The New Republic has recovered three of the shipments, one is known to be in the control of another Imperial faction, and two shuttles disappeared into the Deep Core. The New Republic would like to recover them so they can be returned to the Atrisian Commonwealth.

One potent form of artifact is the holocron, a Jedi storage device that would respond only to a fellow Jedi, presenting teachings through an interactive gatekeeper. These holocrons, many of which are truly ancient, are a remarkable technological achievement not widely understood outside the Jedi Order, as the technology antedates the galaxy at large's discovery of artificial intelligence and holography technology sufficient to duplicate them. The holocrons were thought to have been collected and destroyed by Palpatine, but as Luke Skywalker has discovered, some survived, and more may be out there. So they're incredibly valuable, and incredibly rare, prized by collectors even though they can't use them, and prized by dark side adepts as well.

The Cirra Mace is a ceremonial heirloom weapon belonging to the Cirra akia, a clan of the Aramandi of Brak sector. It was stolen twenty years ago by a heretic, who sold it when it disappeared until five years ago, when it appeared for sale on Genesia and was sold to a Nalroni merchant. It's now rumored to be in Celanon City on the Nalroni homeworld. Once they hear about it, some of the isolationist Cirra warriors may venture out to try to find it, but if the New Republic could locate and return it, it would help diplomatic relations greatly.

The Loag Dagger is a symbol of the Loag assassin cult from Merisee, used to swear a blood oath in initiation ceremonies. The cult was destroyed by six Jedi Knights in a year-long campaign during which they took the dagger, which ended up in Coruscant's Galactic Museum. After the recapture of Coruscant, it's among the items confirmed missing in the looting. This would be a relatively minor note to the chaos of the invasion and reinvasion, except that there are current rumors that the Loag cult has been revived; the dagger could well be in their hands, and if not they would surely be desperate to reclaim it. A sidebar reveals that, contrary to what Corellia and the historians may think, the Loag were never destroyed. When the cult realized the Jedi would wipe them out, their best assassins went into hiding to perpetuate the cult, with only a few outsiders used as contacts between the assassins and their clients. Even with the Jedi gone, the Empire cowed them into remaining secret, but now with both out of the way, they're willing to take more risks. They operate in cells of three to five. If a cell is ever compromised, it allows itself to be wiped out while the other cells lie low, and then wait to take revenge on whoever destroyed the cell. GMs can decide if the Loag have the dagger yet or where it is, but players should have to go up against up to five Loag cultists to secure it.

And now we get to Kooroo, tying in to the Gelgelar running theme of this issue. The Shrines of Kooroo are mysterious shrines, built of the same stone, found scattered across remote planets in certain regions of the Outer Rim. They're all three-tiered structures, made up of a two-level pyramid capped with a round stone over which a roof is raised. The lower levels have solid cores but openings around the sides leading into chambers covered with strange hieroglyphics and art, even some holographs. And they're surrounded by regularly-patterned stone monoliths extending for a hundred meters. They're believed to have been constructed by a telepathic species that did not experience warfare, given the evidence of their art. The species, called the Kooroo, though no one's quite sure where the name actually came from, was never known to the Republic and their homeworld has not been identified. They are believed to be extinct, with the shrines dating to over twenty thousand years ago. Some shrines have been coopted by local species, some abandoned, some destroyed, but relatively few of the species recall that the shrines were built by offworld aliens; many claim the shrines as the work of their own ancestors or of vanished civilizations from their own world. Stories of varying degrees of luridness surround these mysterious shrines, and recently a cult called the Fellowship of Kooroo has sprung up around them, claiming to gain special knowledge from meditating inside the shrines. There may be something to this, since Force-users have experienced a sense of echoing within the shrines, but the effect is poorly understood and it's known that several of the Kooroo leaders, at least, are frauds out to make money. There is a theory that the shrines were used to communicate, boosting the Kooroo's telepathy to allow them to speak across star systems. A slightly more outlandish theory is that the shrines are foci for mental projection, used by the Kooroo to "visit" other worlds in the mind. The most outlandish version is that the shrines were used to actually teleport the Kooroo from world to world. A sidebar specifies that it's up to GMs to decide what the powers of the shrines actually are, but ideas include the telepathic network; psychic batteries that make it easier to call upon the Force; energy collectors for an evil Kooroo species that lacked the articles of war because they used mental power to conquer worlds and were ultimately banished by their foes to Otherspace, where they await the opportunity to make mental contact with a Force-sensitive who can release them and are fed by energies provided by the Followers' worship rituals; or that they're libraries of benevolent Kooroo wisdom, who, knowing they were going extinct, imbued the shrines with imprints of their most treasured knowledge, which can be accessed by a meditating telepath who has translated the hieroglyphics.

Then there's the Emperor's Shadow, Palpatine's yacht that disappeared near Kaal. It's believed to have been equipped with working cloaking technology, and it vanished while commanded by Jeng Droga, around the time of the Battle of Endor. The New Republic believed it untraceable, since it's not like a cloaked ship couldn't easily vanish, but reports from the negotiating team on Kaal suggest it may have crashed on Kaal. What was believed to be its wreckage was destroyed by Talon Karrde to deny it to the Empire, but since there was no investigation, there's no way to be sure it was the yacht. It's possible the yacht is still out there, and in case it may still be worth investigating the wreckage to determine if this was it or not, but this should be done by a covert team to avoid drawing Imperial interest. Of course, a sidebar notes, if the yacht did survive, it may be that Jeng Droga is still guarding it -- this was obviously written before Abel decided that Droga was the vessel by which Palpatine's spirit returned to Byss (though that still leaves open the question of whether the yacht made it to Byss).

Finally, we have the Sharka'k Noor. This one of the many strange, inexplicable bits of surviving Gree technological curiosities. It was recently recovered in an expedition by Dr. Ils Ee. Ee managed to steal the Noor from the Gree Keepers and fled to Tujiamoor. The Talecalle volcano chain, dormant three thousand years, then suddenly erupted in a catastrophe that killed four hundred thousand colonists, and which Dr. Antilles attributes to the Noor's powers. Believing the Noor likely protected its owner, she thinks it's likely Ee fled and may still be active in the area, experimenting with the Noor. The slightest hint of unusual seismic activity should be investigated. A sidebar explains that the Noor is a weird device made up of three tubes, twenty centimeters long, built to be used by the four-tentacled Gree, and thus Ee will never be able to properly master it. It's designed to manipulate geologic activity as a planetary engineering tool that could be grievously misused. The Gree will likely be in pursuit of it as well.

And that's that. It's a nice piece, giving several fun adventure hooks of different artifacts to recover, right in the spirit of WEG adventures. There's some interesting history scattered throughout even though all the artifacts are based on existing information; nothing is wholly original. I would have liked a bit more of Corellia Antilles discussing her past adventures -- even with the blatant ripoff name, she's a great character who can perfectly blend some Indiana Jones fun into Star Wars and who wouldn't love that? It's a fun piece that's well-written and gives GMs a lot of prompts for adventures while also doing a lot to leave open just where they can take these artifacts. I could have stood to see From the Files of Corellia Antilles become an ongoing feature on the order of the Platt or Cracken recurring features.

Following this, it's time for an unusual opportunity for an Adventure Journal author to play with the big-gun characters when Paul Danner writes a Boba Fett action story.

 

Or at least return to tell about their visit

I smell a scenario hock.

Million-credit? Ain't that a bit on the smaller side? Would not something like a "planets are offered as reward" be more fitting for such historical artefacts

Uueg Tching sounds interesting. Why have I never heard about him before while Xim is thrown around like he actually was somebody important instead of just another Hutt beaten warlord.

Do we get any real information about the Loag assassin cult? Like their assassination style; philosophy; manner of clothing; preferred environment; or similar?

Any comment on how natural telepathic species react to the Shrines of Kooroo?

My money is on that it is still parked on Coruscant, nobody have noticed it thanks to the cloaking technology

I guess that Ils Ee looks a lookt like late 80's Alison Doody.

 

No Disintegrations, Please is one of my all-time favorite short stories.

 

No Disintegrations, Please is yet another story from the fairly prolific Paul Danner. What's interesting about this one is that it's about Boba Fett; it's been fairly rare for us to see major characters appearing in non-Bantam writers' Adventure Journal contributions.

It starts in an abandoned bar in a ghost town with the winking name of New Hope. For some reason, there are still a handful of children hanging around in this failed settlement, and they're gathered around an old storyteller. This time, they demand a new story. He's got one, about Boba Fett.

But the story doesn't start with Boba Fett. It starts with some guy named Rivo, a jumpy guy who reads like an addict, arriving at an Imperial garrison commanded by his brother, General Gaege Xarran. Xarran's going to be protecting him from the latest trouble he's gotten into, trouble involving a big fat bounty. Tends to be what happens when you slice into Jabba the Hutt's records and sell sensitive information. In the distance, this sibling reunion is observed by Boba Fett, out in the jungle. And Fett is happy to take on this garrison all by himself.

A speeder bike patrol roars up fast enough to surprise Fett, who quickly takes them out. This is very much an action story, just Boba Fett versus a base full of troops. With the patrol wiped out, the base is now alerted, and Rivo's sure Fett is coming for him, and nothing anybody does can stop him. Xarran, however, is confident his troops can stop Fett -- though he's not fooling around with the numbers he sends out to get him. Fett watches the two full detachments (for some reason this story treats "detachment" as a unit size) leave the base, then fires up a big jamming unit that'll last for an hour before it burns out. Time to go hunting.

He starts by hijacking an AT-AT. Then he takes out the other AT-AT and a pair of AT-STs, and goes off to hunt down the rest of the forces. By the time Xarran's comms come back up, there are no replies when he calls for his units to report in. But an AT-AT does march up and explode. Xarran's not so impressed by the psychological games; he sees what Fett is up to, and is going to hunker down behind his defenses now rather than send any more troops out.

As a distraction to cross the fortified perimeter, Fett brings in Slave I on an automated strafing run. After a few successful runs that threaten the shields, Xarran sends out TIEs, which the ship leads away as Fett jetpacks over the perimeter fence and minefield. There's another flashy action scene as he guns down some stormtroopers in a guard tower and then slices into the computer system. Even as the ship retreats, Xarran grudgingly recognizes that Fett got him: he's obviously not on the ship, and is probably inside the base by now. He sounds the full intruder alert.

Fett fights his way to a control room where he starts taking down the base's systems. The main control room notices and Xarran locks the room down and floods it with gas, but obviously gas means nothing to Fett in his sealed armor. He cuts power to the whole base, and Xarran starts to lose it. He shoots his doubting second-in-command and engages the base's self-destruct. He might have lost this one, but he'll make sure Fett loses bigger.

Fett heads out after Rivo, whom he'd tagged with an advanced tracker. The bounty, fifty thousand credits, isn't open -- he's pretty sure Jabba knew Rivo would run to his brother, and specifically wanted to test Fett against an entire Imperial garrison. As Fett closes in on Rivo, he's ambushed by Xarran, who gets a few shots in. And who, we learn, used to be a member of the Royal Guard. Fett ultimately gets him with a thermal detonator, and goes to find Rivo, only to find that Rivo took the tracker out. There's a holopad with a link to the slicer, who's managed to effect an escape. He's not quite the clueless, cowering wreck he seemed to be; he's rather cleverly used his loyal but disliked brother to buy time to escape without Fett tracking him. Rivo offers a deal: since the base is going to blow up, Fett can say he got Rivo, get paid, and give up the chase, and Rivo promises he'll lie low and never pop up again or rat him out. Fett takes the compromise without taking the compromise: he says okay, but also promises he'll eventually track Rivo down.

Back to the storyteller, who gives the abbreviated ending to the story to the kids: eventually Boba Fett finally tracked Rivo down to his hideout and finished the job like he said he would. Then he sends the kids off to bed, and has a chat with Fett, who's been lurking off in a corner. Fett tosses him fifty thousand credits, the price of the bounty, and walks off.

Amusingly, Fett's capsule says almost nothing about him other than that he's a mystery, but has a seemingly endless bunch of stats for himself and all his equipment. The bios of Rivo and Gaege Xarran don't really tell you anything that wasn't already in the story, just reinforcing the good son/bad son narrative of a high-achiever and a screwup who turned to crime.

It's a fairly fun, action-packed story, that doesn't waste its time with anything else but still manages to get some characterization in for Xarran and a pretty good twist with Rivo. Fett's characterization is a bit cryptic; his decision to just let Rivo go, and then give him the bounty on himself, don't make a ton of sense, especially in terms of the idiosyncratic code of DKM's Boba, the best Boba characterization. There's not a ton of substance, but it's very effective as simple entertainment, as well-crafted on that level as any Adventure Journal story we've seen.

When we come back, it's yet more Alien Encounters.

 

Mine too!


Korpil
http://sequart.org/books/47

 

Never blaspheme about the great Xim....

 

No Disintegrations, Please is bad schlock. It's not even good schlock. I don't think it even works as a simple action story. It's full of bad action.

 

Since we're nearing the end, I just want to point out the sheer stupidity that WEG was actually doing okay for itself... But it's profits were siphoned away to a failing shoe factory that was owned by the parent company, and WEG went down with the proverbial ship.

 

The what-might-have-beens had WEG stayed afloat and retained the license into the prequel era are almost too heartbreaking to consider.

 

Alien Encounters has appeared in two previous issues. This is the first time that the feature finally gets a proper intro instead of just launching into descriptions of alien species. It's also by Trevor Wilson and Craig Robert Carey, who've done excellent work with these sort of short features before, and illustrated by a fellow named Pablo Hidalgo (and I quite like the art).

There's a quick intro that, of course, mentions the Mos Eisley Cantina in the crucial role of exciting aliens in the Star Wars setting and actually explains that the feature is a collection of writeups on exciting alien species and, in a fresh twist, Professor Tem Eliss, a famous sentientologist.

We start off with Eliss (who's taken from Galaxy Guide 12, and would ultimately be featured in Gamer's University of Sanbra Guide to Intelligent Life article series). A well-respected scholar, he's the head of the University of Sanbra's Sentient Studies Department. An Iyra who was raised mostly offworld, he lacks his culture's xenophobia, and is known for disregarding Imperial speciesism. His violation of Imperial norms and open antagonism toward the Empire finally reached the point where he had to go on the run while preparing his University of Sanbra Guide to Intelligent Life, which he released underground to the nets after disappearing. The profiles that follow are continued updates from his work.

Buuuuuut before that we get a little vignette. Can't have an Adventure Journal piece without a vignette. Eliss is in his office, plugging away at his masterwork, when a guest arrives. A small reptile who wants Eliss to publicize the truth about his species, the Abinyshi. See, they're not extinct, like the Empire says.

And that brings us to the entry on the Abinyshi. Once a common species across the galaxy, they are now nearly extinct thanks to relentless Imperial exploitation of their homeworld, and as far as the public is concerned they're already extinct. They're short, slim, bipedal reptiles with long, forked tails. They're largely passive and resigned in temperament, which has helped the Empire wipe them out. They achieved early spaceflight, being one of the first starfaring species, but their small population has kept them from being major galactic players. Their main contribution to the galaxy has been in cuisine and literature, both of which are fairly popular, but have come under a bit of a cloud after they were reported to have wiped themselves out in a massive civil war two decades ago (it's a bit puzzling how any galactically integrated species can go extinct because of events on its homeworld). The timing is nice, though. The truth is that the Empire found huge kalonterium reserves on Inysh and basically strip-mined the planet, wiping out the ecosystem and enslaving the Abinyshi, then leaving when the kalonterium became less needed with access to better ores. A few thousand escaped the planet only to suffer continued persecution by Imperials trying to hush everything up, and they've gone from a fairly common sight throughout the galaxy to extremely rare, most often found lurking in areas outside direct Imperial control like the Corporate Sector.

The Jiivahar don't get their own vignette, apparently. They're from Carest 1, a peaceful forest world popular with tourists. A long, limber, but hairless simian species, they still dwell in the trees. But despite that description, they're not bald monkey people. They've got more of a freaky frog people thing going on, and it's a pretty cool design.


Jiivahar

They excrete an adhesive called sarvin from their hands and feet to help with climbing, which is extremely sticky. They can dissolve it away with controlled perspiration. With hollow bones, they're lightweight for swift travel in the treetops, but fairly fragile. They're peaceful and friendly, largely devoid of suspicion due to the absence of predators on their homeworld. They're also highly curious, which in combination tends to get them in trouble in the larger galaxy until they develop some caution and suspicion. Living in the tranquil, abundant forests of the northern continent, they've only known war twice, both during times of ecological crisis and scarcity. Their society is egalitarian and largely unorganized, grouping into talins of five to ten families with fluid membership. They roam nomadically most of the year but return to permanent settlements during the cold season, which are only lightweight shoreside huts. They hold annual redistributive feasts in which everyone is expected to give as much as they can afford to the talin's leadership, who then pass the goods back out to the needy. The leaders aren't formally selected and don't inherit power; they don't even hold any formal office. They're just kind of acknowledged as the wisest among equals, which comes with certain expectations of settling disputes and managing the annual feast. They can't enforce decrees with force and have no written laws, yet those who don't respect the basic rights of others and the good of the community are forcibly branded and exiled from the community, which basically sounds like you're subject to mob violence from these anarcho-communist tree frogs any time you get out of step with the majority. Their hippie lifestyle also hasn't gotten them past a stone age technology level. With tourist traffic from the wider galaxy allowing some Jiivahar to do well as guides, and some to acquire much-coveted wondrous off-world technology, this has begun putting some pressure on their stone age anarcho-communism; some are now trying to hang on to their high-status goods rather than relinquish them at the feasts, leaving them open to theft from covetous neighbors, while some Jiivahar have gotten their hands on advanced weapons, allowing the outcasts to prey on other talins. Some have gone offworld, where many are offended by the Empire and end up offering their skills as wilderness fighters to the Rebellion. Their curious prying can also get them into a lot of trouble.

Poss'Nomin are our next species. They're from Illareen, and are big-boned, with huge, knobby faces with giant jaws and flat noses, and most importantly of all, three eyes. Finally, a species that can achieve perfection. They're adventurous and driven to explore and acquire knowledge, even as we're told that their personality "like that of most species, varies greatly from individual to individual" (hah, "most species," yeah right, WEG!). Long ago in their history, they developed in one particular region of their world, which was devastated over the course of a few centuries by some kind of ecological crisis that rendered it uninhabitable. They spread out, their civilization blossomed, and diverse states formed, leading to wars about a hundred years ago (gah, why is every alien civilization brand spanking new?) roiling the entire globe, during which they were discovered by the galaxy at large (aghhhhhhhhhhhhh not more freshly discovered species!). The good news is that the Poss'Nomin stopped their global war right away to focus on these extraterrestrial contacts. It took only a decade for the Poss'Nomin nations to unite and pursue integration with the galaxy, and now about a third of the planet is up to galactic technological standards. I do kind of like the idea of a species being in the middle of slowly bringing their world up from the atomic age to galactic standards. While they now have world government, it remains a federal system with a great deal of power remaining in the hands of regional government, but they have everyone at all levels on a system of triennial direct elections. The Empire has abandoned the Old Republic's support for modernization, leaving the Poss'Nomin to fend for themselves, and the economy has consequently stagnated and the pace of technological improvement considerably slackened. The planetary government has responded by selling off land to offworld mining corporations to raise funds for continued modernization. Especially with the depression, many Poss'Nomin have followed their adventurous nature offworld, and several have become explorers traveling the edges of the galaxy.

Lastly, we have the Tarc, a fiercely isolationist species of desert-dwelling crustaceans from Hjaff. Though they may have evolved from sea creatures, they're well-adapted to desert life now, with the ability to retain water for a considerable time. Disappointingly, they're not giant desert crabs, but bipeds with four arms and tough exoskeletons (they look pretty much like really ugly, stocky Barabels in the art). The upper arms have fingers for manipulation, while the middle limbs have crab claws. They're bulky, slow predators that, because they have no lips or tongue, can't speak most galactic languages. But that's fine with them, because they're not interested in talking with anybody else. They believe in keeping their emotions to themselves, which makes them seem cold and ruthless. They can be, but they're not emotionless, just the reserved products of a harsh environment. They prefer swift, decisive action over deliberation, but aren't afraid to rapidly change course if their action doesn't have the desired effects. They've often warred among themselves in the past, before they unified their society under one state, but aren't inherently warlike. When in war, however, it naturally follows from their decisive philosophy to be overwhelming and ruthless, trying to wipe out the enemy as quickly as possible; mercy isn't a Tarc value. They're fiercely protective of their own culture, which helped fuel wars back when they were divided among multiple nations, but a globalizing economy pushed them toward integration, creating a union in which they saw stability and cultural uniformity as a virtue. They then began exploring space, but as soon as they found other intelligent life, they immediately ceased exploration and implemented a program of isolation to prevent cultural infection. They established a buffer zone of twelve neighboring uninhabited systems patrolled by a powerful fleet and scattered with military bases, insisting on the inviolability of their "domain of sovereignty" and attacking all intruders into their space without compromise. This has recently gotten them in trouble with Imperial scouts, and while they've destroyed scattered scouts so far, Moff Joss Leskwin is assembling a fleet to sweep in and overwhelm Tarc defenses. In keeping with their philosophy, they have little bureaucracy and a strictly hierarchical leadership, with a supreme ruler advised by three continental leaders. There are elections every eight years, with mandatory voting. Technologically, they're somehow on par with galactic civilization despite being virulent isolationists. Their hyperdrive technology is primitive, but they have a handful of ships, reserved for leadership, with modern hyperdrives, stolen from their contacts. Only top leadership are permitted to ever leave their territory; for anyone else it's an automatic death sentence. The only Tarc found outside Tarc space are outcasts and criminals, usually working as enforcers. Since they can't speak most languages, and few protocol droids have been programmed with Tarc, they have a very hard time communicating. Within Tarc society, there is a tiny minority, not yet influential, who understand that they're about to get wiped out by the Empire, and advocate joining the Rebellion as the only way to survive; their culture would be susceptible to outside influences, but it's that or die, and they believe the Rebellion would better preserve their culture than the Empire.

This was a pretty good feature; Carey and Wilson are pretty reliable, and bringing it down to four species allowed them to really focus. Each species is interesting and doesn't feel like a generic design, both in Hidalgo's quite good art and the concepts behind them, plus you've got the conceptual outline introduced behind the whole article series, which gives it a bit of the metatextual depth WEG was so good at. There's an extinct species that's not actually extinct, just exploited by the Empire! And they're passive lizard-people who look kind of like flat-faced geckos, which is actually not one of the more stereotyped alien designs in Star Wars. Then you've got a bunch of freaky-looking frog-monkey anarcho-communists whose primitive society is coming under pressure from contact with galactic society, giving it way more depth and narrative than the usual idyllic-primitive alien stereotypes plus a really cool original design. You've got freaky-looking dinosaur-faced humanoids who actually do something with the awful cliche of newly-discovered species by portraying them in the middle of an active, ongoing effort to integrate a modern-Earth-level economy into the wider galaxy, with the slow-going technological upgrade mirroring the real world's decades to integrate life-changing advances like electricity and indoor plumbing across even first-world countries, let alone the globe. This is worth it if just for treating the idea of galactic integration with some actual thought rather than just a passing desire to make every species newly-discovered. And finally there are these really interesting xenophobic desert crab-men. Rather than being isolationist because they're portrayed as suspicious, superstitious primitives or such, I like that they're depicted as obsessed with cultural purity and their own sovereignty, with a sort of cultural terror against foreign alterations to their way of living. They're horrified by the prospect of being subsumed into a "globalized" galaxy and losing their own cultural identity and ultimate control over their own society, and so they'd rather cut themselves off entirely. It's a really interesting and pretty conceptually sophisticated look at the idea of a hostile-xenophobe alien culture that makes them intriguing and even slightly sympathetic rather than just dangerous caricatures (the article also goes out of its way to emphasize that they might be harsh, but they're not simply violent, belligerent fanatics -- just a very foreign culture). I also like the touch that they're not simply invulnerably isolated -- the Old Republic might have implicitly respected their decision and left them alone, but their hostility has them right on the verge of getting wiped out by the Empire now that it's noticed the issue. It's only a matter of time until they're subjugated whether they like it or not -- they're not somehow invulnerable or over-powerful -- but as of now they're not just another conquered, exploited Imperial slave race with some sad tale about how they were once independent. They're in this exciting transitional period right on the edge, which, like the Poss'Nomin, is an interesting point in time to capture for storytelling purposes. If there's one weakness here, it's that all of these species end up fitted into the WEG framework where every alien species has to end up somehow victimized by the Empire and fertile recruiting ground for the Rebel Alliance. Not that some species shouldn't be, but it gets pretty predictable when every species is some half-primitive tribe that the Empire is oppressing or who we're assured is a ripe source of Rebel manpower because they and the Empire just don't get along. I'd like to see WEG writers invent a few alien species that are flourishing members of galactic society, you know? Ones that might not be seeing great treatment from the Empire but aren't exactly actively hurting, either, or at least whose potential as Rebel recruits isn't always the final word. Maybe even a couple species that have found ways to thrive, to make use of the Empire and aren't getting a terrible end of the deal (imagine an established species that flourishes by selling its natural resources, or high technology, to the Empire and collaborating, rather than always having the Empire roll in to take the natural resources away). I get it, the Empire's evil, and should stay that way, but a little variation in the galaxy would be nice.

Next up, it's Charlene Newcomb's last hurrah.

 

Tarc aren't the species you're looking for.

Sauvax.