Clone Wars Campaign: Recap # 27

This was the second of the three-session adventure on Dramos V. I was really impressed by the creativity the director showed in coming up with the subterranean civilization, it's leadership, and the nature of the threat that our characters slowly uncovered. It was a good reminder to me that Star Wars can successfully incorporate elements of the strange and uncanny.


SESSION # 27

Inside a formal reception room on Dramos V, Jedi Knight Lee and Padawans Sian Suan and Kasa watch in silence as a delegation from the Confederacy of Independent Systems is seated across from them. The true nature of the meeting becomes clear: the government has assembled a delegation from both the Republic and the CIS and plans to decide which of them will be allowed a presence on the planet. Lee speaks briefly on behalf of the Republic, but Ludo Todoori, the Neimodian leader of the CIS delegation, draws his ace in the hole: the Separatist battlecruiser orbiting the planet has sufficient troops and weapons to bring order and peace to the troubled city of Pentanossus and elsewhere.

Mirmark Karpok (leader of the ruling House) and Mirmarks Gotal and Lodiss (leaders of the two minor Houses) are almost swayed, but then Sian Suan stands up and in an impressive bit of oratory convinces them to give the Republic delegation 24 hours to find the root of the problems on Dramos V. After the meeting concludes, the three Jedi decide to split up and try to get as much information as possible from the government leaders. Lee sets up a meeting the next morning with Mirmark Karpok. Kasa speaks to Mirmark Gotal and learns that the caverns beneath the city are off-limits and that no maps exist. Mirmark Lodiss tells Sian Suan of ancient myths on Dramos V concerning supernatural beings called Archons, who were seen as guardian spirits, and says that belief in them surged almost 500 years prior.

[AG 275]

The three Jedi return to their quarters shortly after midnight. Lee talks to Lumzoz and learns through some decrypted data that the Solar Kraken mercenaries are linked with at least one of the minor houses on Dramos IV: either House Lodiss, which is allied with the Church of the Archons and is against any mining or excavation of the area beneath the city, or House Gotal, which is aggressively in favor of digging. Kasa does some research on the computer and studies the tangled history of droid-based mining on the planet. Meanwhile, Sian Suan gets some much needed sleep.

In the morning, Lee and Kasa arrive at the palatial estate of Mirmark Karpok. They learn that Mirmark Gotal is strongly in support of the Separatists, but Kasa then makes an offensive blunder and the two Jedi are asked to leave. While they're away, Sian Suan enters a deep meditative trance and reaches out with the Force. She senses a powerful wielder of the dark side just a few kilometers away, but is even more intrigued by a major disturbance in the Force somewhere below the city of Pentanossus--Sian feels a dangerous presence in the Force reaching out to her and barely manages to break the trance before the presence can trap her.

With time running out, the three Jedi decide to seek out the source of the presence by travelling down through the tunnel created by the giant serpent the day before. Just before they descend, Kasa tries to contact Lumzoz by comlink and gets no response. The Gungan draws upon his connection with the Force and realizes that their freighter has been fired upon by a planetary orbital defence platform and that Lumzoz is unconscious in an escape pod. Sgt. Jett is sent to retrieve the pod and rescue Lumzoz.

The three Jedi descend deep into the caverns underneath the city, led by Sian's ability to see well in the dark. Eventually the trio reach a wide, high cavern that has walls covered in a thick, foul smelling slime. The Jedi begin to cautiously make their way across the cavern when they are suddenly ambushed by Lendon Trask, the Separatist Kel-Dorian Force user who had apparently followed them. Trask seems to have masterful control of the Dark Side of the Force, as he hurls lightning from his fingertips and levitates himself in the air. As the melee continues, the disturbance awakens the instinctual hunger of the mold entity in the cavern, and thick, slimy tentacles reach out. The battle against Trask is furious, but eventually the three Jedi win out only to make a stunning realization: Trask is actually a droid powered by a strange, floating black triangular object, and his "Force" powers were actually accomplished through technology. Sparks from the droid's damaged circuitry turns the flammable slime-covered cavern into an inferno, and the three Jedi manage to escape with scant seconds to spare.

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