The Griffin's Crier

Here's a rundown of the current unresolved story lines.

Mandalorian Vanguard

Advanced agents of the Mandalorians -- perhaps mercenaries, perhaps bounty hunters -- are on Taris. They attempted to capture Quest Fios (apparently in revenge for his role at the Battle of Ord Brokell), but he was able to evade their ambush. Worse, these Mandalorians are working with a Sith who apparently works as some sort of hound that can track Jedi. The lead Mando, identified as Sasha, seemed to control the Sith force witch through the use of a bracelet artifact.

The Assembly

A confederation of opportunistic, profit-taking Neimoidians who travel from star system to star system looking to extract the maximum advantage from unfortunate circumstances. They're most recent operation took place on Zebulon Beta, where they cornered the market on offworld transport and charged exorbitant rates for those seeking to flee the planet ahead of the Mandalorian Invasion. The leader of that operation was Hath Gunray, Assemblyman and captain of the Profit-Seeker.

The DeadStar

The crew of Binary Transport Inc. once had a bounty on their heads from the Commerce Court on Taris. Their crime? Claim jumping the wreckage of the Starworm, which DeadStar Salvage had a legal right to. The DeadStar crew has looked to force the issue on several occasions (the most recent of which saw the near-destruction of the Aeon Harrier. The bounties made life difficult for the crew ... especially when bounty hunters decided to make good on them. Fortunately, Highlife has friends in high places -- when Binary Transports started running jobs for Admiral Jimas Veltraa, the Admiral used his influence with the bureaucracy to clear Highlife's name.

There is now an uneasy truce between the two organizations. Although there's still no proof, the DeadStar appears to be more than just a salvage ship, and may operate a sideline as a pirates (selling any "salvage" they capture ... but that's just slander at this point). Binary Transports has had occasional run-ins with the DeadStar and their DeadDrop troopers, but Geelo -- the master of DeadStar Salavage -- seems to have been avoiding confrontation with Binary Transports since Highlife aligned himself with the Admiral.

The Sith Cult of Knowledge

Based on your experiences on Ryloth and Zebulon Prime, it seems clear that for the first time in 15 years, a Sith cult is active in the galaxy. This cult seems different though, as they appear to be obsessed with the pursuit of knowledge as the key to power. They may be on to something; The Dark Lady Aldera happily sacrificed her entire research team in order to open a wormhole from the Spires of Xax on Ryloth to an alien superweapon known as the Maelstrom, location unknown. The Jedi Knight Lornn Varri followed her there, but his fate is unknown.

What of the rest of the Cult? Was it destroyed on Ryloth even as Aldera fled? You have a single clue from Ryloth: all of the Sith's equipment and transport (from their arrival aboard the Star Queen to the suncrawler commissions) came from the budget of the Academy of Sciences on Couresant, with the authorization of Joleen Del Ren, the Dean of Exotechnology Research at the Academy.

Over the last five years, the cult has continued its research into the Zebian artifacts, and has caused the destruction of two worlds, as well as the near-destruction of a third. There has been no sign of the Jedi Knight Lornn Varri, who chased Aldera through the portal.

Lesser Plots / Characters of Note

Zaxor the Haxor: Zaxor is a freelance hacker hired by Ral Duris and his pirate band to compromise the Zebulon planetary system's communications. He succeeded brilliantly, but eventually the heroes uncovered his handiwork and were able to seize back control of the network. All evidence points to Zaxor being based on Taris.

Binary Transports hasn't had any subsequent run-ins with the hacker since the start of the Mandalorian Wars, but word on the street is that he's still active.

Resolve Storylines

The Pirate Lord Ral Duris

Ral Duris once led a band of pirates on Zebulon Prime. That band was smashed by our heroes, costing him two of his three ships and his former bases on the Prime. He and the surviving pirates fled Zebulon and the Vargis Tau system on his surviving ship, the Obsidian Phoenix. His current location is unknown, but it seems likely that he'd return to his old piratical ways in some other system ... and might be looking for revenge. In the past, he operated with the Dark Lady Aldera and her Sith; it's unknown whether the Sith are still in contact with him.

He was killed when a joint fleet of Jedi, Binary Transports, and Starrior Expeditions battled his flagship, the Obsidian Phoenix, and destroyed the vessel. His pirate band is no more.

Koth: The Zabrakian bounty hunter (and would be assassin) tried to silence Torg Sheperdson, the assistant portmaster at Jolus on Zebulon Beta (Vargis Tau System) after the turncoat was caught funneling navigation data to Ral Duris and his pirate band on the Prime. He failed after Rade Gasa dove in front of the blaster shot meant for Torg. His current location is unknown.

He was forced to team up with the Jedi and Binary transports after Duris put a price on his head; he felt the best way to deal with that threat was to end his former employer's piracy once and for all.

For Baden Rana, the most immediate of these concerns is of course the DeadStar situation. As a member of Binary Transports, Inc., he of course wants resolution to this situation.

Quest will of course want to go to Coruscant to root out this Dark Side taint on The Republic. However he will not be opposed to putting down lesser evils if it becomes neccessary...

Damon.

JPD-14 would want to hunt down and eliminate the Sith, as the remnants of his original programming are still strong, even though he has reprogrammed himself and become an independent droid.

Perhaps the Sith Cultists, or those who knowingly conspired with them have bounties on their heads, or will when we expose their treachery?

The pirates allegedly conspired with the Sith... So theys need bein' blowed up or have holes burn'd in them.

I'd humbly suggest that our best course of action is to head to Taris. The pirates of Zebulon are the best link to the Sith. The money to pay Koth, and Zaxor's signal both originated from Taris. Since we know the pirates worked for/with the Sith they are the direct link to the Sith. It's also a lot closer, and gives the crew an opportunity to get Deadstar off their backs.

I'm not so sure how good the Sith's connection to the Academy of Sciences is. They could have been manipulated into funding the expedition, could have sent a real expedition which the Sith commandeered, or a little bit of both. Perhaps our new ally Thradox could use his connections to find out a bit more. Highlife can do the same.

So I think I'm hearing the beginning of a consensus to go to Taris, as that has the potential to resolve a number of story lines. The alternative is heading to Coruscant and hunting down leads regarding the Sith.

Any other votes/opinions? I'd like to figure this out by Tuesday so I have time to prep; either way means I need to break new ground and do a fair amount of writing.

I vote Taris.

Ok, unless someone has some serious objections, let's go to Taris!

Cory and I talked a little about what he wants to do when Highlife gets to Taris, but what about the rest of you? Any immediate plans?

Find Sith. Defeat Sith. Preferably in single Lightsaber combat.

Find those associated with the Sith and burn holes in them.

Well, first Quest is going to find a nice Helium cafe, perhaps with a fine snifter of Kel Dor liqueur and a tender juicy nerf steak. Then he'll put in an evening at the local Taris concerto, finally to retire for drinks at Taris' finest hotel.

Oh, yeah. And find Sith. Should probably do that first...

Damon.

Taris or bust, it seems!

Just to keep things current ... we can cross Koth and The Pirate Lord Ral Duris off this list.

The major outstanding storyline is the Sith Cult of Knowledge, but Rade Gasa's new friend may be able to shed some light on that.

NukeHavoc wrote:The Sith Cult of Knowledge

Based on your experiences on Ryloth and Zebulon Prime, it seems clear that for the first time in 15 years, a Sith cult is active in the galaxy. This cult seems different though, as they appear to be obsessed with the pursuit of knowledge as the key to power. They may be on to something; The Dark Lady Aldera happily sacrificed her entire research team in order to open a wormhole from the Spires of Xax on Ryloth to an alien superweapon known as the Maelstrom, location unknown. The Jedi Knight Lornn Varri followed her there, but his fate is unknown.

What of the rest of the Cult? Was it destroyed on Ryloth even as Aldera fled? You have a single clue from Ryloth: all of the Sith's equipment and transport (from their arrival aboard the Star Queen to the suncrawler commissions) came from the budget of the Academy of Sciences on Couresant, with the authorization of Joleen Del Ren, the Dean of Exotechnology Research at the Academy.

So I'm putting two and two together here. One of the ships that the Obsidian Phoenix destroyed was

NukeHavoc wrote:the Sapphire Solace. It was a Science Academy-chartered ship that had been exploring the shattered moon of Teleron V in the Outer Rim.

Perhaps another lead to the Cult? Hmm, if only the Obsidian Phoenix's databanks hadn't been destroyed in a firey explosion. Or weeeerrrrreee theeeeeyyyyy??????? Ken, any chance there's some good wreakage from the Phoenix that we can salvage? Bigger ships don't usually competely vaporize (in the SW universe). Maybe we can find a portion with somewhat intact data banks? Or even heavily damaged ones that we could scour for additional clues?

Oh, and we could probably go and check out Teleron V, too.

[update]

I added two additional unresolved storylines, and moved the Pirates to "resolved".