Doomsayer Session 03

01 May 2022: The PCs travel to Nar Shaddaa, where they learn more about both Damasa Kovani and the artifact. They also discover that the Mirror has somehow followed them from Kamparas and is now targeting more of them.

Session 03 audio log

Previous: Doomsayer Session 02

Plot Summary
During the two-week journey from Kamparas to Nar Shaddaa, Vic Dantor was especially busy. With help from Nomi Amersu he thoroughly searched Rogue Ronto for tracking devices and/or bugs, and by the end of the search was quite convinced the ship was clean. He also got permission from Nawah Masin to modify one of the three rifles the PCs took from the clone troopers at the Jedi Temple and re-engineer it into a pistol. Vic also tried to access the files he had stolen from the Jedi Temple but did not get very far, mainly because the records he had stolen went back thousands of years and were not compatible with any of his decryption software. He concluded he would need to ask his brother Ori Dantor for help with the problem.

Brawln asked Vic to help him investigate the tracking device that the Jawas had removed from HC-7 once the ship had access to the HoloNet again. Vic declined, saying it was risky to connect to it and that if anything went wrong it might give away their position. The two of them agreed to try this immediately before they left Nar Shaddaa, if they remembered to do it and if they had time.

Vic also influenced Efnir Kis to try touching the PCs' mysterious artifact with the Force. When Efnir meditated in the artifact's presence, he discovered that it was connected to the Force in ways that inanimate objects usually were not. He perceived a strange sense of surprise and confusion coming from it, but knew he would not be able to delve deeper into its mysteries without being stronger in the Force.

Upon arriving in orbit of Nar Shaddaa, the PCs checked the news on the HoloNet and discovered that while they were in transit, they had missed the end of the Clone Wars. All the members of the Separatist Council were confirmed to be dead, and the droid army had been fully deactivated; the new Emperor claimed this had happened so easily because the treacherous Jedi could no longer influence affairs. Most beings in the galaxy seemed to accept these claims (at least outwardly) and to be grateful to the Empire for the peace it was bringing. (Vic's Separatist contacts had mostly gone quiet, with the exception of some wild rumors out of Mustafar about a duel between two Jedi.)

The PCs were also being inundated with ads for (very expensive) places to park their ship on Nar Shaddaa. Knowing that it would be unwise to leave Rogue Ronto unattended, they decided that their best bet was to land at a spaceport called Cardon's Temporary Labor Depot, where the proprietor, a human woman named Milla Cardon, would allow them to complete tasks on her behalf in exchange for a secure berth for the ship, fuel, and supplies. Milla told the PCs that they had the rest of the day to conduct any urgent business, but that the following morning she expected them to report for their assignment.

The PCs split up. Somi Amersu chose to remain on the ship in meditation; she had been trying for the whole voyage to contact Lilikai Singan through the Force, but had not yet succeeded. Nawah, Vesper Syl'tine, and Vic went out together to conduct business. First they sold the two remaining clone trooper rifles for a tidy sum on the black market. Then they located a Bothan neighborhood where Vesper purchased Bothan Shoes from a cobbler; perhaps overexcited to see his own people again, he accidentally let it slip that he was looking for a pair of shoes that could conceal a lightsaber, and Nawah's fruitless attempts to gloss over things made the encounter even more memorable. Finally, they went to a scrapyard and purchased parts for Vic to convert his quarters on the ship into a pressurized methane chamber.

Brawln, Efnir, Nomi, and Rhen went to meet Brawln's contact Emor Zhalto, an aging Duros bounty hunter who had sold them the information about Damasa Kovani. Emor had told Brawln to stop by his office if they came to Nar Shaddaa. Emor was friendly and eager to talk and told the PCs the following:
 * Because the Hutts rule Nar Shaddaa, Damasa's "arrest warrant" was more properly a bounty. This one was placed on her 20 years ago by Korrda the Hutt for burglary and theft. The bounty was worth 5000 credits and stipulated that Damasa be brought in alive.
 * The announcement of the bounty included an image of Damasa. Although the image was low-quality and quite out of date, the PCs could see she was a female Iktotchi wearing what looked like Jedi robes.
 * Due to the size of the bounty, Emor had been keeping an eye out for Damasa ever since he relocated his business to Nar Shaddaa a decade ago. He was fairly confident she hadn't been back to the moon in that time.
 * Emor suggested that the PCs talk to Korrda for more information. She could be found at an establishment she owned called the Lucky Kiss Casino.

The PCs reconvened at the spaceport and decided to go to the Lucky Kiss Casino together. Since Efnir knew that as an Iktotchi, he would not be admitted due to his precognitive abilities, he found a nearby cantina and waited there with Vesper. Nomi and Vic decided to gamble at the casino while remaining alert to any problems; with Nomi charming the (scantily clad male Twi'lek) dealer, Vic acquitted himself quite well and won a set of lockpicks. Brawln, Nawah, and Rhen asked for an audience with Korrda the Hutt, saying they were chasing the bounty on Damasa Kovani and that they needed more information to fulfill the contract. Korrda invited them up to her private suite and told them the following:
 * Twenty years ago, Damasa approached Korrda, claiming to be a Jedi Knight who had learned of an assassination plot against Korrda being organized by a rival crime syndicate. When Korrda asked why the Jedi would take an interest in such matters, Damasa remained coy but implied that the Jedi found the Hutts to be a more stable and predictable enterprise to deal with than other groups. Korrda was skeptical of this at first, but became more convinced after she was able to independently confirm things Damasa had told her.
 * Damasa convinced Korrda to go away to Nal Hutta for a weekend while Damasa stayed behind in Korrda's house to lay a trap for the assassins. A couple of days later, Korrda received a message from Damasa telling her it was safe to return. Korrda found her house in complete disarray, with disabled assassin droids all over it, and Damasa nowhere to be found. Because of the extent of the mess, it took a long time for Korrda to realize that an expensive crystal that had belonged to her clan for many generations was missing from her home. Korrda believed Damasa was the only possible thief.
 * Korrda gave the PCs holoimages of the missing crystal. When the PCs asked whether she mostly just wanted the crystal back rather than Damasa, they got the sense that Korrda's grudge was more about the principle of having been deceived by Damasa rather than the value of the crystal, and that she mainly wanted to make an example of Damasa so other people would know not to cross her in the future.

While Brawln's group was taking their leave of Korrda and assuring her they'd let her know if they found Damasa (while being pretty sure they were not, in fact, going to do this), Nomi and Vic noticed a commotion around a sabacc table and moved closer to investigate. They saw a distraught human man talking to the casino's Trandoshan security guards while a medical droid worked on another human man lying unconscious on the floor. The first man was saying, "I don't know what came over him. It was like he just...snapped. I mean, Lorn never cared at all about the Jedi before this." Listening in, they heard the man (whose name was Kodo) tell the security guard that he and his friends Barton and Lorn had been at the casino for their usual get-together when Barton won big at the sabacc table. They were on their way to celebrate when Kodo teasingly said that Barton must be a Jedi because of his luck - to which Lorn said "The Jedi are traitors to the Republic," and sucker-punched Barton in the head. Nomi then noticed a broken hand mirror resting under Barton's body and whispered into her commlink, "The Mirror is here."

Outside the casino, Efnir and Vesper saw someone fleeing out the front doors. Efnir went to meet the others, but Vesper chased after the fleeing figure even though he had absolutely no idea where it had gone. While making his way down a long, dark corridor, he heard a familiar voice in his mind: "You can run, Jedi, but you can't hide." Vesper ducked around a corner to cower in terror while Brawln, Efnir, Nawah, and Rhen came looking for him. The four of them then heard a voice in their heads: "So many Jedi. Four of you. And the son." Four hand mirrors came flying toward Brawln and landed at his feet as someone with a blaster began to shoot out the overhead lights. Having now found Vesper, everyone agreed to go back to the spaceport rather than face the Mirror. While running away, Brawln, Efnir, Nawah, Rhen, and Vesper all heard the sound of the Mirror's maniacal, deranged laughter echoing in their minds.

The PCs shared what they had learned. When Nawah displayed the images of Korrda's stolen crystal, Efnir and Vic immediately recognized it as a component of the artifact. Closer study of the artifact did not reveal anything additional about this crystal's intended function - but while fumbling around with it, Efnir inadvertently knocked open a tiny hatch on its base that revealed a computer access port. The PCs plugged the artifact into 3D6 and discovered three holovids of Firith recorded on it. This made the PCs wonder whether determining the provenance of the other parts of the artifact, and/or getting to the bottom of what the various Jedi referenced by Firith Mobak in the videos had been trying to accomplish with it, might be an easier way of locating Damasa than chasing rumors of her all around the galaxy.

However, the Mirror seemed like a more pressing concern. He had somehow tracked Rogue Ronto all the way to Nar Shaddaa (the PCs assumed the Force had to be involved, given the results of Nomi and Vic's tracking device hunt) and seemed to have it in for most of them now, regardless of whether they were Jedi or not. Brawln also remembered that he had heard a clone trooper on Coruscant say the same thing about the Jedi being traitors to the Republic that Lorn said before attacking Barton, which made him think the Mirror might have been impersonating a clone trooper on Coruscant. (The others also asked Brawln if he knew what the Mirror had meant with his reference to "the son"; Brawln said he did but that he wasn't ready to talk about it yet.) The PCs suspected that the Mirror had shapeshifted and taken Lorn's place. A quick HoloNet search revealed the locations of both Lorn's home and the shadowport where he worked. Since the shadowport seemed like it would be more difficult to access, they decided to start with Lorn's apartment.

After confirming with the Force that there were no living beings inside the apartment, Vesper picked the lock using the tools Vic won at the casino. Searching the apartment didn't turn up anything interesting, but Vesper did find a blaster pistol, which he stole. Vic checked Lorn's computer terminal and found a recent message from Kodo, saying Barton was in the hospital but expected to recover and urging Lorn to talk to him so they could clear the air. Based upon Kodo saying that Lorn had been acting strange when the others picked him up at work, the PCs suspected that if the Mirror had taken his place, he would have done so at the shadowport. Deciding not to waste any more time, they headed for the shadowport.

Things to Remember

 * Some unknown panel is loose on Rogue Ronto after Nomi and Vic searched it for bugs and tracking devices (1 threat on Perception roll)
 * Vesper contacted his sister and told her he needed shoes
 * The Bothan cobbler on Nar Shaddaa definitely knows Vesper is an escaped padawan
 * Lin Vondin, the Mirialan proprietor of the scrapyard on Nar Shaddaa, hit it off with Nawah and Vic and said they can park their ship there for free the next time they come back (3 advantage on Nawah's Negotiation roll)
 * Nawah asked Emor to look into Jaquina Masin's whereabouts (using Brawln's Bought Info - this will happen at the speed of plot)

Next: Doomsayer Session 04