Do You Want To Buy A Secret Chiss/Republic Base?

General Summary

Having successfully returned to Torunga, the group convinces Clan Qiju to stop faking distress calls to find pirates, as faking distress calls is a very bad thing in space. They learn the Clan Elders are on the way to visit Torunga. Landing on the planet, the group also learns Gus Tuno's mission was a success and the data is on the way.
Clan Qiju decides to move to Torunga in full.
Tor'vir indexes the Rakatan Data.
Asha and Tor'vir discuss Asha becoming a Jedi. Asha then talks to Master Alize about becoming - or not becoming - a padawan. She also finally tells Alize about Sothys. She later tells Amur, Gridtok, and Niwadi about Sothys. Amur is very concerned.
We make plans to go to Tython, to turn over our data in return for payment. The Jedi and the Republic are getting tired of paying us for priceless, unobtainable data, and are getting snippy in places. Amur gets his Republic citizenship fast-tracked, and Niwadi's Jedi Courier status is reinstated. We stop first at Coruscant and go shopping, and try Chiss food. We then head for Tython.
At Tython we are stuck yet again in negotiations and explanations of why we aren't just turning over data for free, and why the data is worth a lot, and what we've been doing. We meet with Master Amaranth, Hero of Tython. She does seem to think we're all right, and tells the Jedi Council so, but apparently the Republic Senate is not happy with Ronin Jedi. They've sent a negotiator to discuss our payment on behalf of the Jedi. Yerba is very unhappy about it. We eventually convince the negotiator for a sum of funds, and for the use of a ship to continue our investigations, as we have to go to a sector usually unreachable.
We board the Guiding Light and get a tour of the impressive ship. En route, we suddenly are powerless in hyperspace. We suspect sabotage, and spend a lot of time carefully going through the ship to get it functional again. It turns out the Engineer sabotaged it. While trying to figure out how to fix it, we are attacked by some sort of Force creature that floats onto the ship. Mostly the Force active people handle it. Whatever it is, it really hates Amur.
We need to get out of hyperspace, but we are too concerned about the sabotage to trust the hyperspace engines, and have a very confusing conversation (for the Guiding Light's crew) wherein we discuss "packing peanuts" as an option to safely get us to normal space, where we can try to get things working. Asha and Sothys take us out of hyperspace, but at great pain, as we are close enough to the Kurzah homeworld that hyperspace is deadly to Sothys. Gridtok has to heal Asha as she and Sothys get us out of hyperspace.
Amur gets the hyperdrive working, but only one set of the drives. Everyone works on repairs. We limp our way to our destination. HK begins to bond with the crew, even calling some of us by name.
We arrive! And we're greeted by Chiss! And the Republic!
That was rather unexpected!
The Captain explains we're on a mission under the authority of the Jedi Council and we need repair. Controlled, orderly chaos ensues, with the Chiss checking us out for biological contaniments and taking blood samples. Amur recognizes what they are worried about, a plague-like thing called the Mnggal-Mnggal. We are declared free of it and allowed to dock with the Phantom Justice.
And interrogated! We spend a lot of time explaining how we found the place and what we're doing and why we're doing it. The Chiss are suspicious. The Republic seems amused, but mostly because Tor'vir studied with their commanding officer, Lt. Col. Jareen Oshii. The Chiss and Republic seem mostly concerned that they weren't warned, since the Jedi Council knows of Kurzahn Prime. Mostly it turns out we never actually mentioned where we were headed or called the Kurzahn by that name, so they didn't realize. Once Oshii realizes the stakes, she is disinclined to let the Chiss make us disappear.
The Chiss need this planet because the Kurzahn make a substance that is the only thing that can stop the Mnggal-Mnggal.
We are given data on the Kurzahn, and permission to land on planet. Gridtok, Niwadi, and Tor'vir spend time donating blood as payment, since the Kurzahn haven't had our species before.
The trees are extremely huge and hold entire cities. We see sky whales fighting birds, and we have no idea how the whales are flying. The Tree is force active and light, although everything on the tree is dark. We land, and see a figure approaching, but first we are attacked by some overly-eager wildlife? plants? Who knows. Everything on the planet is deadly and wants to eat everything else.
We kill the Kurzahn who attacked us and greet the one who had been meeting us, Dmitry. Dmitry samples our genetic samples we brought for trade, and is very excited by the Jawa samples. We are brought to Adele, the Sothys of this place. Adele is Force active, and is very excited by the Miralukan sample.
We explain what we need and what we're looking for. It's nearly 20,000 years ago for the information, during the time they call the Great Burning, when the Kurzah angered the stars and the stars burned the world. Trees grew after this. We also learned about the gods:

• First God: Grass
• Second God: Blood
• Third God: Mind (The Force)
• Fourth God: Technology

We arrange transport with a Kurzah named Reygar to meet with the Priests of the Tree. Reygar follows a path called the fractured mind, and can make extensions of himself he controls. He takes us to the base of the Tree where the Priests are. We are granted the chance to commune with the Tree. Amur declines, and simply watches. Asha learns about the Great Burning and of the last of the Sithari, Axzigal. Gridtok learns about entities that just integrated with the Tree, which are giant flowers. The flowers think they can attack the Outside Temple (The Chiss) and take their complexity. Niwadi learned all about how the Kurzah fly, from ancient ships to the birds and the whales. Asha also lets Sothys try to find smeone who remembers the Path of the Parasite.
Eventually everyone wakes up or is woken up. Asha tells us we need to find the Priest of Blood, Axzigal. Tor'vir donates blood to the Tree. Axzigal is waiting for a true Sothys, which he knows will be when someone can defeat him.
We do a lot more bargaining (and Tor'vir, Niwadi, and Gridtok do a lot more bleeding) in order to secure passage and a guide to Axzigal. Reygar will lead us there, and Dmitry will come with us as well. We also give Adele a holostatue of a dragon.
We return to the station briefly, explain what we're doing, and are loaned a shuttle and battle droids. We land again on Kurzah and leave HK to guard the shuttle. We build a raft and travel by river to Axzigal's territory.
Everything tries to eat us on the way.
At night, while we camp, Reygar attacks Dmitry. We end up defending Dmitry and eventually Niwadi manages to convince Reygar to stop attacking, and that we need them both. Amur says once we're off-world, they can do what they want.
Eventually, we make it to Axzigal's city, where we fight drakes, and then the Temple, where we are set a challenge to earn our trade for knowledge. We are shown visions of other Offworlders who have faced Axzigal's trials. We sleep, and the next day enter deep into the Temple, facing down a lot of killik-like kurzahn and flying kurzahn and mushroom kurzahn and... we kill a lot of things and Tor'vir finds a crystal which he bargains for, and then nearly dies. He also figures out that the killik-kurzah are minds made one, as opposed to one mind fractured. Gridtok nearly dies as well. Then we run a lot and kill more things, but eventually make it to safety. Well, as safe as anything can be on this horrible planet.
We are questioned for what we want - Niwadi, as pack leader, is asked, and says she wants everyone out safe. Asha asks about the Last Bastion and lets him read her mind about Almaga. Axzigal does not want Almaga anywhere near a Bastion and gives us information we need. He explains that Sothys in Asha's head is a Shadow of a Sothys, a type of weapon. Sothys is indignantly confused. He tells us his own memories of when the Trees were star vessels, that Sothys was a specific person and a title, how he was raised from a dragon to Sothari, how the Rakata burned every world the Sothari seeded. We are given memories of Bastion locations and how to get to them. We also are given a Kurzahn ship in exchange for genetic samples from Asha and Niwadi.
Niwadi names the ship the Star Thranta. We agree to bring back any Kurzah complexity we might find at the Bastions.
We return Dmitry to the Tree and leave Reygar to make his own way back. The Kurzah are very impressed by the Star Thranta.
The Chiss are far less impressed, once we get back into space, and we spend a lot of time being questioned, again, and the ship searched and tested.
Covers Game Sessions from 7/18/23 through 10/24/23

Character(s) interacted with

Other Characters: Dmitry, Adele, Reygar, Axzigal, Beng'ti'lakti, Jareen Oshii

Quotes

NPC Shopkeeper (Roberto): Oh, I love small customers! What I can do for you! If I could cut my own legs off I would!
Gridtok: ...I could help with that.
Lina: Don't worry! It'll work before we die.
Niwadi: You need me?
Tor'vir: Fix Life Support!
Gridtok (affected by enemy Force creature-thing): Asha must die!!
Kris: You did marry him. You have an email to prove it!
Stormy: From Las Vegas!
Roberto: He misses with his bite.
Stormy: I (Gridtok) will return the favor.
Kris & Eric, in unison: You'll miss with your bite?
Roberto: Make a ranged attack against an ally.
Dave: Do I get to choose the ally?
Roberto: I thought it would be closest, but it doesn't say.
Dave: I shoot the guy who flew us to this planet.

Report Date

07 Nov 2023