Dogs in the Vineyard – Nar Shaddaa Civil War

This session report was originally posted by “igorhorst” (Tariq Ali) on the Gauntlet Forums. Session 1 took place on January 20th 2020. Session 2 took place on 26th 2020, and Session 3 took place on February 2nd 2020. If you want to run this adventure, you may want to look at my notes. (Note that I quickly deviated from my notes after the Rebel Alliance blew itself up, but the general gist of the notes were followed.)

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Using the house rules detailed here, where players roleplay as politicians who are in charge of solving a crisis.
This generally takes place in the Legends continuity, with some minor changes (for example, the “Galactic Alliance” is called the “Rebel Alliance” to prevent confusion). It also draws inspiration from a fanfic I written as well.
This is a three-session campaign (including a section for initiation conflicts), so this thread will be divided into multiple posts.

Introductory Blurb:

After decades of war and chaos, the galaxy has finally been unified under the Galactic Federation Triumvirate. Three factions (the Fel Empire, the Rebel Alliance, and the Jedi Order) have agreed to share power and coordinate their resources. Though the system is not perfect, it has ended the brutal star wars that has plagued the galaxy — or so people thought.
Nar Shaddaa, also known as the Smuggler’s Moon, is a hive of scum and villainy, only tolerated because of its importance to the galactic economy. Soon, a power struggle is taking place within the Hutt Cartel that runs this place. The Jedi Order had previously stayed neutral in this struggle, but after receiving visions about a new Sith Lord in the area, the Order dispatched some Jedi Masters to investigate…

Characters:

Vanel Tervada. Corrupt Politician, Jedi Sentinel. Has access to intelligence operatives, assassins and the Acquisition Division (the organization in charge of recruiting Force Sensitives into the Jedi Order). Has learned how to abuse his Force Powers to ‘mind control’ people to do petty stuff, like, say, get him a glass of water.
Chenar Toris. Political Radical, Jedi Historian. Has connections to many different people, including smugglers, space pear traders, corrupt Rebel senators, a luscious Imperial Moff, and the Keeper of the Holocrons (who wants to protect galactic history from being forgotten). Also has access to Jedi and Sith holocrons and dirt on various Rebel Senators and Imperial Moffs.
Groken. Career Politician, Jedi Guardian. A Gamorrean who has been recruited into the Jedi Order; he has respect and admiration among the young and brash. He is smarter than he looks, but not as smart as he thinks he is.

Session 0: Initiation

Vanel’s Initiation

Vanel Tervada believed that the Rebel Alliance has “grown too big for its britches” and is threatening the balance of power between the three major galactic powers. He therefore ordered an assassination on a key Rebel Alliance politician to destabilize the Alliance and restore the balance of power.
A first wave of assassins wound up being detected, and The Politician dispatched a few Genoharadan assassins in self-defense. One of Vanel’s assassins was captured, but killed himself before the Genohardan could extract any info.
Vanel’s assassins then attempted to conduct a second assassination attempt, by infiltrating The Politician’s penthouse in Corsaunt and convincing a butler of his to put some poison into The Politician’s daily drink. The Politician realized he was poisoned, and informed his supporters before dying.
The Rebel Alliance then conducted an investigation into the death of The Politician, claiming it is to root out “rogue” elements of the Jedi Order (to avoid accidentally embarrassing the Jedi Council). Vanel then stepped in and mind-controlled the investigator, convincing him to drop the investigation – allowing the Jedi Master to get away with murder.
The Rebel Alliance was damaged heavily as a result of Vanel’s assassination plot (as Leoban was very important for the Rebels’ cause). In fact, they were close to falling apart.
Therefore, Vanel (in consultation with Chenar Toris and Groken) made a demand to the Rebel Alliance – either they give the Jedi official power within the Rebel Alliance’s hierarchy (instead of simply just being given a ‘voice’ that may be disregarded at will), or the Jedi will let the Rebel Alliance collapse.
I didn’t know what the Rebel Alliance would say, so I rolled a 6-sided die (1-3 for no, 4-6 for yes), and got a 2.
The Rebel Alliance rejected the deal…the civilian leadership could not support giving up political power to the Jedi. As a result, the Rebel Alliance wind up imploding, with various Rebel warlords fighting against each other for power.
Vanel’s asssassination attempt cost him a lot of reputation within the Jedi Order – many of his assassins and operatives eventually moved away from Vanel’s control, leaving him with only one core follower, Jerad.

Chenar’s Initiation

Chenar Toris attempted to restore order within former Rebel worlds and incorporate them under the influence of the Jedi Order – though ex-Rebel worlds would keep their own local government, they would accept the “advice” of the Jedi Order.
However, opposing Chenar were the Imperial Knights (Light-Sided Force Users who serve the Fel Empire), who were attempting to influence the Rebel worlds into joining the Imperial camp. Chenar was able to use anti-Imperial sentiment (especially with broadcasts of the Destruction of Alderaan and the Endor Holocaust) to rally the former Rebel worlds onto their side against the “invaders” (the Jedi, naturally, already have a presence in the Rebel Alliance’s worlds, so their influence should be naturally accepted).
The Imperial Knights claimed that, as they were as Light-Sided as the Jedi, they should have the right to influence worlds at will – but Chenar pointed out that if the Imperial Knights wanted power, they should focus on improving the Imperial worlds and turning them into utopias first (if they could successfully do that, then the Rebel worlds would willingly defect, rather than being coerced into doing so – and if they can’t do that, they have no business influencing other planets). The Imperial Knights agreed to stand down and return to their own territories, allowing the Jedi to take control over ex-Rebel worlds.

Groken’s Initiation

During the collapse of the Rebel Alliance, the Hutt Cartel, led by Misto the Hutt, decided to launch a military invasion of a spice-mine, after being “welcomed” by a corrupt ex-Rebel senator who owned the mine, hoping to annex it into Hutt Space. However, Groken was able to use his expendable army of Jedi padawans to blunt the assault, though it led to many military casualties and a loss of respect within the Jedi Order (as the military response was seen as excessive and wasteful). Misto retreated, but Groken was seriously wounded. The ex-Rebel senator survived but lost control over the mine to a Jedi-appointed successor.
As a result of Groken’s serious wound, Misto saw a chance to make a demand of his own…and thereby gain political power through another way. He requested membership into the Galactic Federation Triumvirate, replacing the now-defunct Rebel Alliance. Otherwise, Misto would finish Groken off.
Groken was unsure whether to accept the offer. The Gammorans had history with the Hutt Cartel – but it wasn’t a pleasent history. Chenar Toris though saw this membership as a simple acknowledgment of Hutt power, which was indeed the case. Chenar though suggested that the Hutt Cartel slowly phase out slavery if they wanted to be a part of the Triumvirate, and Misto agreed – after all, robots are more effective than sapient slaves anyway.

Session 1: The Power Vacuum

A Vision

It’s been 30 years since the collapse of the Rebel Alliance and the ascent of the Hutt Cartel into the GFT. Groken and Chenar ascended to the Jedi Council. Vanel could ascend to the Jedi Council, but he understood that his rather Dark-Sided actions could get himself detected and purged, so he instead arranged for a puppet of his to get onto the Jedi Council.
A young Jedi padwan, Quinn, informed the Council that Misto the Hutt was assassinated, leading to a civil war between two Hutts (Marphux and Awne) who blame each other for the murder…and he had a vision about a Sith Lord on Nar Shaddaa. The Jedi Council does not really care about a gang war in Hutt Space, but does care about that Sith Lord, especially because they thought the Sith were already exterminated by the Imperial Knights decades before.
Both Groken and Chenar looked up info on the assassination. Misto’s palace was apparently blown up, and Genohardan agents were spotted in the vicinity (likely laying the charges). This wasn’t a spontaneous assassination like what happened decades ago when Leia Organa famously murdered Jabba the Hutt. This was a pre-planned attack.
Groken and Chenar decided to investigate by landing on Nar Shaddaa, while Vanel’s puppet stayed behind to monitor the padawan. Secretly, Vanel was worried Quinn may find out his darkness, and want to monitor any prophecies Quinn may have.

Beginning the Investigation

On the way to Nar Shaddaa, Groken and Chenar saw Hutt battleships shooting at each other. When they finally made it to the Smuggler’s Moon, they saw a blockade fleet…but they were able to easily mind-control the blockade force to let them through, pretending to be one of ‘their’ ships.
The Jedi landed in a Hutt shipyard controlled by Marphux, located in the poorer parts of Nar Shaadaa. As they moved their way to a popular bar in Nar Shaadaa (“The Glitch”), they encountered a battle between Marphux’s soldiers and Awne’s soldiers. They decided to avoid the conflict, as they don’t have enough data on what’s going on.
When they made it to “The Glitch”, they found it to be a museum/bar focused on art dealing with the Unknown Regions, specifically art dealing with Sith holocrons and ancient Sith technologies. One of the artwork was found to be made by Moff Shan (the “luscious Moff”), a friend of Chenar Toris.
Groken had some connections to the Genohardan, so he called one of his agents over to the The Glitch to talk about the assassination of Misto. The Genohardan agent confessed to blowing up Misto because Misto was attempting to gather Sith holocrons via an organization called “The Railroad” (as Misto considered the Sith to be “misunderstood” and think that their secrets deserved to be rediscovered). The Genohardan didn’t want the Hutts to have advanced technologies and risk upsetting the balance of power – so they had Misto killed. The Genohardan said that they ‘helped’ Awne assume power, to try to make sure that The Railroad doesn’t make a comeback.
Groken was suspicious as to why the Genohardan waited until now to do the deed…and so he mind-probed the agent, finding out that the agent had some corrupt ties to Nebar Fox, the CEO of Czerka and a former Rebel Senator. Nebar Fox was also a good friend of Chenar’s. The Genohardan agent claimed Fox was in a casino in The Promenade, the rich-part of Nar Shaddaa. So that’s where Groken and Chenar went.

Meeting With Fox

They managed to meet up with Fox in-between his gambling sessions. Fox stated that he was expecting the Jedi, and that he has guards protecting him in case they do any wrong move. Vanel managed to convince Fox to play a game of Space Chess (which he won – to simulate a game of Space Chess, I rolled 1d6, where 1-4 meant a victory for Chenar, and 5-6 meant victory for Fox – Chenar won that roll).
During this game, Groken started probing the CEO for info. Fox said that most of the Rebel senators joined up with Czerka once the Rebel Alliance blew itself up, and he started off as a lowly executive trying to establish good diplomatic relations with Misto, helping to improve the economy of Nar Shaaddaa. He knew Misto was dealing with Sith artifacts, but he was just a businessman focused on economic modernization – and if Misto went too far, he knew the Imperial Knights and the Jedi could handle that. Eventually, Fox worked his way up to the position of CEO.
Fox pointed out though that The Railroad is still active…and that Awne is now leading them. Fox does not want the Genohardan to know this, which raised the eyebrows of Groken, who has anti-Sith beliefs. Fox hated the Sith, as do most people, but he also was upset about how the Rebel Alliance died. The galaxy is now essentially being divided between religious theocrats (the Jedi), secular authoritarians (the Empire), and crime lords (the Hutts). Democracy has died, to thunderous applause. Until the Republic could be restored, Fox is willing to tolerate the Sith – “the enemy of my enemy is my friend”. (It must be noted that Groken and Chenar disagreed with Fox’s portrayal of the Jedi.)
Still, Fox realized that he is better off cooperating with the Jedi than resisting them, so he is willing to work with the Jedi, so long as the Jedi promises not to touch Czerka’s assets within Nar Shaddaa. Chenar agreed, but note that the Jedi will fight in self-defense, if need be. He gave the name of two Railroad agents – Moff Shan and Jerad, and stated that these agents have appeared to have fallen out with each other. He also talked about Mission Vao (a holocron representing a Twi’lek who long ago worked with a Sith Lord named Darth Revan), a terrorist who is being supported by Marphux and who had been blowing up Czerka’s assets.
As Groken and Chenar plot how to ambush Awne the Hutt…

Vanel versus Quinn

…we turn our camera back to Vanel and Vanel’s puppet. Vanel was monitoring Quinn the Padwan, as he was afraid that the Jedi padawan may have visions about his own corruption.
Quinn did have another vision…this time of another Sith Lord on Nar Shaddaa. At this point, Vanel’s self-preservation instincts kicked in. He invited Quinn into a secret meeting place and then ambushed him, hoping to murder Quinn before he could have another vision.
Quinn was no match for Vanel – he tried to escape or call for help via the Force, but Vanel silenced the padawan before he could pose a threat. None of the other Jedi members suspected a thing, and Vanel once more got away with murder.
- Mechanically though, Quinn did quite fine and had more dice than Vanel did – but Quinn also took a lot of fallout, and Vanel decided to ‘give up’ in the hopes that Quinn would simply die from the resulting fallout. Quinn got seriously injured, which was good enough.
- Vanel could make a demand, but only one demand…and what he wanted (to both ‘prevent Quinn from telling others about the murder attempt’ and ‘strip him of his ability to see the future’) were considered to be two demands, meaning he has to get another conflict. Better to just finish Quinn off.
- The murder of Quinn meant that, in the fluff, Vanel may have truly ‘fallen’ and became a Dark Jedi. No one else knows this yet though.

Session 2: The Sith Reveals Themselves

Some Notes

Before the game began, I asked Vanel (the Dark Jedi) what was his motives. Vanel said that he does not believe in a galactic government, and that he sees absolute power as corrupting absolutely. His goal is to ensure that society remains divided so that no one entity gains complete control and domination – and all his schemes are dedicated to decentralization. Thus Vanel is supportive of the Galactic Federation Triumvirate, where the three galactic powers agree to share power. He engages in dark actions only to keep the balance of power and prevent anyone from being dominant.
During the game, I shared population stats since that might inform players’ ethical decision making. 85 billion people live on Nar Shaddaa and there are 100 quadrillion people living in the known parts of the galaxy.

Vanel Arrives At Nar Shaddaa

After dealing with Quinn, Vanel traveled to Nar Shaddaa, bringing along a puppet Rebel Senator with him. He made it to the blockade ships being controlled by Marphux the Hutt, who asked him his business. Vanel claimed that he had official business on the Smuggler’s Moon, using the Rebel Senator as an excuse. Vanel was granted permission to dock on one of the blockade ships while the ‘powers that be’ decide what to do.
While Vanel was on the blockade ship, he saw Imperial Knights in the area discussing and planning stuff. After some paperwork, the commander of the Imperial Knights, Marth Graken, stated that Vanel and his Rebel Senator has permission to visit only the Undercity and the Corellian Sector. The Promenade, however, is currently being locked down, as the Imperial Knights are planning on ‘cleansing it’.
However, both Chenar and Groken are at The Promenade…so Vanel really need to get there. Though Vanel could secretly sneak in, he would prefer to receive official authorization via his standard approach of mind-controlling people.
So Vanel started a Persuasion Conflict with the Imperial Knights. He first tried to mind-control the Imperial Knights, and while the newbies fell for it, the veteran leaders were able to avoid it.
The veterans tried to warn Vanel against going to The Promenade as Vanel may be hurt during the purge, but Vanel claimed that he can defend himself – he’s a Jedi. The veterans decided to back down, and give Vanel and the Rebel puppet official permission to visit The Promenade.
Vanel was concerned on whether the Imperial Knights would detect his darkness, so I rolled. 1-4, he escapes detection, 5-6 he gets detected. He rolled below 4, so the Imperial Knights suspect nothing.
Vanel therefore made it to the same casino Chenar and Groken is at. Together, they set forth to Awne’s headquarters.

Battle of the Yuuzhan Vong Museum

Awne resides in a Yuuzhan Vong Museum built to honor Hutts’ attempts at reconstruction after the YV war. It discussed how the YV destroyed the Smuggler’s Moon, how they were driven off, and how the Hutts funded reconstruction efforts to bring society back to its modern state. May be propaganda, may be true.
However, as soon as they get close to the museum, they hear a shootout taking place inside the Museum.
Storming out was Moff Shan, as he fired on Jerad. Jerad screamed that Moff Shan murdered Awne, after Awne wanted to destroy The Railroad.
This immediately raised suspicions of the three Jedi – especially Vanel, who think Jerad is saying too much and stop his ally from self-incriminating himself and getting himself killed.
In any event, if the Jedi Masters are to get any info, they have to stop this blaster-fight first.
Vanel decided to “Force Push” Moff Shan onto a wall to stop her from firing the lasers, but Chenar (an ally of Moff Shan) intervened – a conflict between Vanel and Chenar was about to start, but after the dice was rolled, Vanel saw that he would lose against Chenar and conceded, allowing Chenar to block the “Force Push”.
As both Vanel and Chenar were getting prepared to fight, their respective allies, Moff Shan and Jerad, admitted to them that they were Sith Lords. That turned out to be a pretty horrible idea – admitting their Sith-nature to three Jedi Masters. (Further examination revealed these so-called Lords to just be amateurs, not like Sidious.)
The laser-fire conflict between Moff Shan and Jerad continued for some time, but eventually petered out as the Jedi Masters deflected blaster shots. The supporters of Shan and Jerad soon fled the area, knowing that they couldn’t win a fight against the Jedi Masters.
During the blaster fight, Vanel’s puppet Rebel Senator runs away from the museum (and by extension, Vanel), screaming for his dear life. He is not used to any sort of combat.

Jerad’s Escape

With the combat over, Vanel was ready to spare Jerad, letting her leave the museum alive. However, Groken tried to stop him, leading to a sustained Persuasion conflict between Vanel and Groken, with Jerad lending Vanel some of her Sith training in this conflict.
Vanel claimed that Jerad was with him and so should not be questioned. Groken replied that, “No, we must know the truth. She might be a Railroad agent, a Sith enthuanist or a researcher.” Groken also tried intimidating Vanel, by walking up close to him and stating plainly “She must tell us all she knows.”
Vanel shrugged the intimidation attempt and replied, “She must not be questioned. Let it go.”
With Groken unwilling to escalate further, Groken conceded, allowing Jerad to run away. Groken however is now suspicious of Vanel.

Moff Shan’s Interrogation, Part 1

Vanel ‘accidentally’ force-pushed a door open, which would allow Moff Shan to escape. This, however, annoyed Chenar, who stepped in to fight. Chenar and Vanel decided to prepare for a Force Combat session, but Vanel gave as he saw he didn’t have enough dice to fight back. Chenar then telepathically locked the door, preventing the Moff from escaping.
With Moff Shan under the custody of the Jedi Masters, Moff Shan was interrogated, and he once again reaffirmed that he was a Sith. Groken wondered why would the Moff admit to being a Sith, and suspected that the Moff had a trap. The Moff admitted that he indeed had a trap – the Imperial Knights would soon be in the area trying to kill everyone, while the Moff would sneak off to avoid getting killed. (This annoyed Vanel, and now he wants to kill the Moff in revenge for laying a trap against him).
Chenar manage to get a recording device in the area to record the Moff’s confession, to try to prevent a ‘witch hunt’ from taking place and demonstrate to the Jedi Council that the situation has been dealt with.
Moff Shan continued his confession. He explained that Misto the Hutt wanted to improve the Hutt empire through two methods – bringing in Czerka and finding Sith teachings. The Moff was hired to lead this underground Railroad to help find ancient Sith artifacts that could help the Hutts survive. (The Moff did not mention Jerad’s role though, as he knew that Vanel would not approve…and did not want to get his anger.)
Moff Shan soon studied the holocrons well enough to figure a lost Sith techinque that could allow him to restart history, thereby allowing him to mold the galaxy to his liking. The Moff liked that because he hated how the galaxy was in continual conflict and war every few years – even the sudden collapse of the Rebel Alliance scared him. If he could destroy and recreate history, maybe he can create a better galaxy, one that is more stable and peaceful.
When Awne the Hutt inherited control over the Railroad and realized Moff Shan’s plan to restart the galaxy, Awne threw a fit. After all, the Hutts are already doing fine in this timeline – rebooting it would take away the Hutts’ benefits. Awne the Hutt attempted to purge the Railroad, and in a spontenous retailiation, Moff Shan murdered Awne. This sparked the Battle of the Yuuzhan Vong Museum.
After the Moff’s confession, all Sith material within the museum was confiscated, and the Jedi Masters look for a hidden escape route to avoid the approaching Imperial Knights, but there’s a challenge on how to deal with the Moff. Use a guard droid? Freeze the Moff in Carbonite? Or just kill the Moff? Immediately, Vanel attempted to Force Choke the Moff…annoyed that the Moff tried to kill him off using the Imperial Knights, but Chenar decided to intervene, preparing for yet another Force Combat
…while Groken got word from his Genohardan contacts that the Imperial Knights have landed in the Promenade and are killing people. Vanel and Chenar dropped their conflict for now, and decided to freeze the Moff in Carbonite until the Imperial Knights are dealt with. All three Jedi Masters rushed to battle.

The Promenade

By the time they got there, people were already being slaughtered in the Promenade, and Marth Graken had already held Mr. Fox hostage. Conflict between Marth Graken and Chenar. Groken said that the problem is solved, that the criminal (Moff Shan) has been arrested, and these are semi-innocent people, you shouldn’t be killing them…and Marth Graken responded that’s the problem, they’re semi-innocent people!
A Persuasion Conflict starts. Chenar stated that the Jedi support judgment…and that judgment includes a sense of justice, not mass slaughter. But Marth claimed that these people were guilty, due to their tolerance of the Sith. Marth wants to address the root cause of the problem, by killing those who support injustice. Chenar stated that again, mass murder is not justice…and that if Marth decides to press forward, he will activate his lightsaber and fight the Imperial Knights.
Marth understood that even if he does win the conflict and beat Chenar, he would get into a war with the Jedi. He doesn’t want to fall to the Dark Side by attacking the Jedi…or provoking a diplomatic incident.
Chenar comes up with a compromise solution – the IK and the Jedi work together to purge Sith artifacts in the area, thereby purging the darkness in the area while purging the darkness within themselves. Marth agreed, conceding the conflict.
At this point, I calculated death tolls. Chenar intervened early, so he saved lots of people from dying, but I still need to know how many did die. 1-3, only 1 billion died. 4-6, 2 billion died. I rolled…and got a 5. 2 billion people were murdered by the Imperial Knights in the Promenade before Chenar intervened. (Most of this massacre took place via orbital bombardment, though some squads were sent down to the lunar surface for ‘cleanup’ operations.)

Moff Shan’s Confession, Part 2

Moff Shan was unfrozen from carbonite, and the interrogation continued. Groken was curious as to how Moff Shan planned on restarting history, wondering if it required any time travel.
Moff Shan explain that his plan was to destroy The Force by causing “echoes” – all life is connected to the Force, so any massive atrociry, such as the destruction of Alderran, threaten to cause people to disconnect themselves from the Force (as such atrocities would be painful). If too many people disconnect, then the Force itself dies. Then the Moff would try to ascend to become the new Force, thereby attempting to seize control over the galaxy. This plan was an ancient Sith technique that was forgotten and then rediscovered by Darth Traya thousands of years ago.
When Groken stated that the whole plan was unnatural, Moff Shan also pointed out that was how the original Force came into being, by destroying the ‘previous’ Force and assuming power. Groken still saw the plan as horrific, regardless of the previous history of the Force. Quadrillions of people would die as a result of this plan. Moff Shan said that it would be good because he would create a better galaxy, but Groken replied, “Really? Really now?”
Chenar called this plan worse than the schemes of Darth Plagueius and Count Dooku. Even Darth Vader wanted power, not destruction. Moff Shan would get no sympathy from the Jedi Masters.
Chenar asked how Moff Shan planned on carrying out this plan…and if he was using any superweapons. The Moff replied that it was through the Imperial Knights – he hoped their slaughters would cause an ‘echo’ to take place.

Judgment

The Jedi then needed to make a judgment on how to handle the Sith artifacts…and Moff Shan.
Groken supports destroying the Sith artifacts, but Chenar stated that it wouldn’t help – the knowledge will be rediscovered in time, no matter how long. It’s better to keep them under lock-and-key, but Groken doesn’t want this knowledge to be known to anybody. They soon come to a compromise – this knowledge is locked away and requires three keys – (a) the Leader of the Jedi Council, (b) Groken the Gammeron, and © the Force Ghost of Qui-Gon. You need all three “Keys of Darkness” to get the knowledge of the Sith.
Naturally, Marth wanted a key too, and so did Vanel. Chenar replied snarkily, “Of course, anyone can have access to the Jedi library…you just need to talk to Groken.”
Then comes Moff Shan. Mindwipe? Carbonite? Kill? Vanel supported execution. The Moff was okay with execution as well…he was ready to die for his beliefs, like the Jedi would die for theirs. But Chenar and Groken was in favor of sparing the Moff and giving him a chance at redemption (no matter how cruel or twisted said redemption may be). Freezing a person in Carbonite permantently may be too much, so mindwiping seemed like a better choice. Chenar told the Moff “You will die, but not how you want to.”
Rather than stripping away all of the Moff’s memories and leaving him a braindead person…
The Moff’s memories of the Dark Side is stripped away (though all his thoughts that led to him going to the Dark Side remained). Vanel objected to the partial memwipe, but Groken said that’s okay, you can’t fix every person who had dark thoughts…and in fact, every person has dark thoughts once in a while. Groken had dark thoughts about the Hutts, for instance (due to Groken himself once being enslaved by Awne the Hutt, and his own species also being enslaved by Hutts and other species)…while Vanel had dark thoughts too…as Groken is quick to point out.
The Moff was forced to resign his office and is placed under the guardianship of Chenar. Moff Shan is to mind and catalog the Holocrons (and thereby be a useful adventure hook, if anyone ever wants to try to recover the memories that the Moff may still have!).

The Aftermath

The Nar Shaadaa Civil War ended, as Marphux the Hutt takes control and begins his policy of militarization and economic independence, thereby ensure the Hutt Cartel remain strong and self-sufficient. Chenar sent a message to Marphux, letting him know that his regime is “Not our concern, yet. Do not let it be our concern.” The implication being that ‘don’t deal with Sith holocrons if you don’t want to meet the fate of Awne’.
A week after the end of the Nar Shaddaa Civil War, Nebar Fox invited the Jedi Masters to a chat over a game of Pazzak. He’s still dealing with terrorism from Mission Vao, and thinks it was Mission Vao who ‘encouraged’ the Imperial Knights to launch their murderous self-righteous slaughter (her terrorism was focused on pure bloodshed). He’s also concerned about Marphux, as he now has no such protection against him, now that Awne is dead. He’s no longer wanting to work with the Sith, seeing, well, what happened to them. So he wants to ally with the Jedi, providing them funding and support.
Groken points out that the Jedi is an ascetic order and don’t really need material possessions. Chenar however points out that the Jedi’s loyal supporters might like said material possessions though.
Czerka Corporation has a reputation for shady practices, such as slavery and previous alliances with the Sith. So Chenar used his dirt on Imperial Moffs and Rebel Senators to figure out any sins they committed recently. Chenar’s sources reported that as soon as Nebar Fox landed on Nar Shaadaa, he began squeezing out small businesses in the area in order to establish a monopoly in the area…and the small businesses eventually sought revenge by working with terrorists.
There was also one major atrocity though worth mentioning. Before Nebar Fox became CEO, Czerka got in a war with VaoCorp. VaoCorp was founded by Mission Vao to fight and destroy Sith artifacts (after being inspired by Revan, himself an ex-Sith Lord). Elements within Czerka were interested in seizing control over VaoCorp’s trade routes and VaoCorp’s personnel (in the hopes of learning their secrets for finding out where Sith artifacts are located). VaoCorp’s home planet of Ukatis was destroyed by Czerka in the war. Hence why Mission Vao wants revenge.
Groken was concerned about whether the Jedi actually need to intervene in Nar Shaadaa’s affairs, but decided that since they were being invited to do so (since they can’t handle the problem), all should be fair.
An agreement was made between Nebar Fox and the Jedi Masters. Czerka would ally themselves with the Jedi and will agree not to engage in any trafficking of Sith stuff or engage in slavery. Chenar sends this agreement off to the Jedi Council, with an attached memo: “Trust but verify.”
Fox, for his part, consented to Jedi inspections of Czerka, and suspected the ‘corrupt pro-Sith elements’ in Czerka worked for Moff Shan in the past and may have already fled the area.
Groken had another quest to go to, so he left the party, moving onward while Vanel and Chenar decided how best to deal with the anti-Czerka terrorist.

Postscript: Moff Shan’s plan was based on a fanfic I wrote that sought to ‘bridge’ Legends continutity and Canon continuity, by claiming that the galactic timeline can be ‘rebooted’ through an ancient Sith ritual that involves destroying The Force. Eventually, someone will successfully reboot the timeline, but obviously, not today.

Postscript Two: I kinda had to do a lot of improv during the Battle of the Yuuzhan Vong Museum, to explain the three-way conflict between Awne, Jerad, and Moff Shan, giving all three characters motives for their actions. My accidental reveal of Jerad and Moff Shan as being the Sith Lords also had to be hastily explained as them being a bunch of Sith wannabes, and Moff Shan’s “trap” only existed because Groken pointed out that a Sith Lord would only reveal his existence if he has some way of dealing with the witnesses.

That being said, the Imperial Knights were already planned from the get-go to start their purge of the Promenade (though their role in Moff Shan’s plan was made up during gameplay).

Session 3: The Sith’s Desperate Gambit

Some Notes

At this point, Vanel took a relationship with the Dark Side, thereby becoming a Dark Jedi (according to the game mechanics).
During gameplay, after Vanel began interacting with his Rebel Senator, we talked about the possibility of the Senate existing without a Rebel Alliance. We decided that since the Roman Senate historically survived the destruction of the Western Roman Empire, that the Galactic Senate survived the destruction of the Rebel Alliance. This “rump” Senate would only control the Independent Planet of Coruscant and make no pretensions to running the galaxy.

The Investigation

After Groken left Nar Shaddaa, both Vanel and Chenar had two objectives: (a) deal with the anti-Czerka terrorist ringleader Mission Vao, and (b) Find out where Jerad has went. They had no leads yet though on either of those two objectives.
They first decided to tend to the wounded rich people (many of whom were hurt during the Imperial Knights’ massacre or by terrorist bombings by VaoCorp) that were housed within certain areas of the casino where they met Nebar Fox. Vanel tried to get medical aid, while Chenar scanned for traumatic memories and used the Force to get people to focus on more pleasing memories.
Chenar detected an interesting memory from one of his scans of the traumatic patients – a corporate executive saw Jerad providing help to the Imperial Knights, pointing out where they need to attack. Jerad then ran away from the scene while the massacre took place. The corporate executive followed, hoping for some sort of escape or understanding of what’s going on. The executive saw Jerad run into “The Glitch”…only for Jerad to realize she was being followed. Jerad then shot the executive using a laser blaster.
Chenar wrote down details of that memory, and then used those details to provide a detailed holowound reconstruction, in order to better examine the make and model of the laser blaster that was used by Jerad.
Chenar found out that this specific blaster came from a splinter Sith faction that rebelled against an ancient Sith Empire. All Sith follow the “Sith Code”. Though most Sith follow the Dark Side of the Force (since that is the most natural interpretation of the Sith Code), this specific splinter faction followed the Light Side, believing that if the “good” will always prevail against evil – so if the Sith wants to ensure their domination, they must be “good”. The Sith Empire successfully suppressed this ‘perversion’ of the Sith Code.
Chenar also remembered Darth Gravid, a more recent Light-Sided Sith (and a part of the Banite Order), who also attempted to get the Sith Order onto the Light Side. It is however difficult to reconcile the Light Side with the Sith Code though, and he would be murdered by his Dark Sided apprentice.
This knowledge of Light Sided Sith is very rare and obscure – most people believe that all Sith are Dark Sided, and that’s the end of their thinking about Sith ideology. Chenar decided not to tell Vanel about this information, keeping knowledge of the Light Sided Sith to himself.
While Chenar was dealing with the implications of a Light Sided Sith, Vanel decided to “excuse” himself to meet up with his Rebel Senator-puppet to coordinate activities on the Independent Planet of Coruscant.
Vanel decided to pump one of his friends, the Captain of the “Spice Bird” (a smuggling ship), for any interesting rumors.
First, The Capitan pointed out that there were rumors that Jerad is trying to create a new Sith Order at The Glitch, though many people are not interested (seeing what happened to Moff Shan).
He then stated that there is a non-Sith holocron in The Glitch as well, which might be interesting knowledge as well.
Finally, the Captain stated that Marphux the Hutt (the new ruler of Nar Shaddaa) is building a palace down in the Undercity, since that is where most of his support base is, and may hope to consolidate his power there before “dealing” with Czerka.
Chenar then called up Vanel to see what he was doing, and accidentally overheard Vanel yelling at the Rebel Senator-puppet and trying to intimidate him into doing what he wants. Vanel tried to justify this action to Chenar – he knows what needs to be done, he expects results, and sometimes people are not cooperative. He’s just being forceful. Chenar replied, “Forceful, yes. But The Force has two sides.”

Infiltrating Jerad’s Sith Order

Chenar is very suspicious about Vanel’s actions and suspect that Vanel might have turned to the Dark Side. But Chenar is optimistic and a good friend of Vanel; he wants to see the best of things in people. So he ignored his doubts – he doesn’t want his suspicion to be true.
Chenar and Vanel both decided to infiltrate The Glitch, pretending to be possible recruits for Jerad’s new Sith Order. The Glitch appeared to be cleared out for everyone except for Jerad, his followers, and a non-Sith holocron, and more defensive turrets are in place than usual.
Jerad began lecturing to his followers about the Sith Order and the need to avoid the Dark Side and embrace the Light Side, as the Light Side always wins in combat – good always prevail over evil.
Chenar records the lecture and then sends a message off to the Jedi Council – “The Sith are trying to recruit people…and are doing a very bad job at it. What should we do?”
The Jedi Council responded that Luke Skywalker allowed a few Light Sided Sith to train at the Jedi Academy, so they are tolerated, though treated with great suspicion. The Council also gave Chenar the freedom to do as he wished when dealing with them.
Jerad then handed out pamphlets with the Sith Code:

Peace is a lie. There is only Passion.
Through Passion I gain Strength.
Through Strength I gain Power.
Through Power I gain Victory.
Through Victory my chains are Broken.
The Force shall free me.

The annotations (three times longer than the actual Code) point out that embracing the Light Side would give a person enough passion, strength, power, victory, and ultimate freedom from societal obligations and desires…since good will always triumph over evil. “And when you are good, you can do anything you want!” (This attitude annoyed Chenar, and made him conclude that Jerad’s Sith Order was just a bizarre attempt to recruit people to the dark side.)
Vanel, for his part, expressed sympathy towards the Sith creed – pointing out that doing the right thing may sometimes feel hard. Chenar, however, replied that this is why there are teachers of morality.
Chenar, however, wondered if anyone actually cared about this Light-Sided Sith creed. He began scanning the minds of people in the area to find out. It turns out nobody really cared about this creed other than Jerad – they are only listening to it because they want to learn Sith teachings that can give them power.

The First Chenar-Vanel Conflict

Vanel decided to “help” Jerad out by scanning people’s minds and convincing them to subconsciously get interested in whatever Jerad was saying. Chenar detects this tampering, though he does not know at first it was Vanel doing it, and wants to counteract this tampering. So we have a conflict between Chenar and Vanel, with Jerad helping Vanel out.
Vanel notices counter-tampering measures, but not sure where it’s coming from. Vanel thus pushed his Force technique harder to just overwhelm the counter-signal.
Chenar continues pushing, while surveying other people’s ideas in the hopes of finding the tamperer. He then injects a subconscious message to the people in the room – show people the horror of the Sith, with deep implications on the phrase “The Force shall set you free.” Suppose you are indeed free. What will you do with the Force? There’s a lot of bad examples of things that can be done with freedom – horror, destruction, violence, looting, etc.
Vanel realized that it was Chenar who was responsible for the counter-tampering measures. He can’t argue logically against Chenar’s subconscious message, so he doesn’t bother with logical debates. He’s going right to their base instincts, appealing directly to the Dark Side.
This freaked out Jerad, who stopped in mid-speech to rant to everyone to not turn to the Dark Side, and to resist the urge. It’s clear that the subconscious messages have freaked him out.
Chenar then scanned to see if there are any Force sensitives in the room. There are only two – Chenar and Vanel. At this point, he is forced to admit that Vanel has indeed turned to the Dark Side.
Chenar, however, has two tricks on his sleeves. First, Nebar Fox (the CEO of Czerka) has heard from patrolmen that some Darkside gathering is taking place in The Glitch. So Nebar sent police officers there, in the hopes of breaking up the gathering.
Second, Chenar sends a text message off to Rebel Senators and Imperial Moffs, using his dirt on them to get their attention. He states that they need to intervene to stop Jerad’s organization, because it won’t look good for them if there is a darkside uprising.
With pro-Czerka police units moving in, and Rebel/Imperial politicians preparing to act as well, Vanel concedes, breaking off the conflict. However, as a last-ditch effort to retain influence, he firmly embedded his subconscious ideas into Jerad’s followers – trying to convince them to “embrace their true nature”. This embedded idea would linger for days.
As the police move in, Jerad’s followers disperse in various directions. Jerad picks up the non-Sith holocron and also departs as well. Chenar tails Jerad while Vanel is following along.

Jerad’s Slumhouse

Eventually, Jerad makes it to a slumhouse in the Undercity, along with the non-Sith holocrn. Jerad activates it, revealing it to be a holocron of Mission Vao. Jerad and Mission Vao quickly got in an argument, blaming each other for the debacle. A shouting match took place. Mission Vao claimed that she trusted Jerad to lead the fight against Czerka – and yet Jerad did nothing.
Chenar, observing Jerad, decide to implant an idea into Jerad’s mind: “Arguing with a computer is a waste of time…you should just turn the holocron off and take a nap.” And that is what Jerad did, turning Mission Vao off in mid-rant.
Chenar then sneaks into the slumhouse and stole the holocron, then activated it so he can talk to Mission Vao.
Mission Vao thought she was going to get into yet another shouting match with Jerad only to be pleasantly surprised to be talking to a Jedi – the last time she talked with one was 500 years ago, when they were stuck up and arrogant. Hopefully these Jedi would be better.
Chenar knew to flatter Mission Vao and let her keep talking and self-incriminating herself, while covertly recording everything she says for later transmission.
Mission Vao explained that after VaoCorp’s home planet of Ukatis was destroyed, her followers moved her over to Nar Shaddaa to help her rebuild her forces to eventually destroy Czerka.
She managed to get the support of small businesses in the area, were able to conduct a few successful terrorist attacks in the area, got the help of Marpuhx the Hutt (who needed an ally in his war against Awne the Hutt), and even convinced the Imperial Knights to “cleanse” the Promenade. However, some Jedi stopped the Imperial Knights from doing this cleansing operation, and Awne the Hutt died under mysterious circumstances (leading to Marpuhx the Hutt to cut off funding).
Chenar points out that the life of a Hutt is very risky, and death happens a lot. Mission Vao agreed with Chenar, and pointed out that she could have waited for Marphux to die, and then try her luck again…though her followers lost some morale in the process. But, then Jerad came to her stating that he wants to create a Light-Sided Sith Order…which was an interesting idea (Mission Vao didn’t really like Sith, but like the Light Side). So Mission decided to lend her followers to Jerad, hoping that Jerad’s training would help lift VaoCorp’s fortunes.
Chenar asked Mission Vao who she considers as competent leaders of VaoCorp. She only named herself – that was why she put herself into a Holocron in the first place; she couldn’t trust anybody else in her organization to lead it.
After Mission Vao began repeating herself, Chenar ‘turned’ Mission Vao’s holocron off, promising to get her more competent help in the future. (In reality, Chenar planned on turning her over to the police so they can interrogate her).
Chenar sent a transmission to the Jedi Council with an audio file of Mission Vao’s rant. He thought about sending a transmission over to the local authorities – except then he realize the local authorities include Marphux the Hutt, who probably doesn’t really care about Mission Vao’s antics.

The Second Chenar-Vanel Conflict

At this point, Chenar confronted Vanel. Chenar argued, “Freedom without responsibility?” Vanel paused for a few moments before replying, “Responsibility to yourself.”
Chenar stated, “Freedom without laws of community is like being a slave to your own desires, like having a collar put on you by a Hutt.”
Vanel tried one last plea to avoid confrontation. “I thought about the possibility that this day would come. You are a longterm friend of mine. If you want to agree to disagree…”
Chenar rejected said plea. “I am a historian. I have traveled to the realms of the Holocrons and knows the horrors of the dark side.” He names a half-dozen Sith Lords, all of whom would later die in violence.
Vanel realizes a threat when he sees one. He looks at Chenar’s lightsaber, and then back away, as he doesn’t carry lightsabers of his own.
Chenar uses the Force to lock the door behind Vanel – preventing him from escaping for anyone else from coming in.
Covertly, Mission Vao’s holocron turned herself back on, and listened to the conflict taking place.
Chenar doesn’t start with violence at first – limiting the Conflict with Vanel to ‘Physical Intimidation’.
He draws upon the memories of Moff Shan, the memories that was erased a session ago but he carefully preserved in case he ever needed then. He draws on them for strength, with the understanding that this might tempt him to the dark side.
At this point, Jerad also wakes up from his slumber, seeing the conflict between Chenar and Vanel. Realizing that it was Vanel that inadvertently sabotaged his session at the glitch, Jerad used all his Sith training to help Chenar as well.
To start the conflict, Chenar stated “Join me, or join them” (the Sith Lords that were slain in battle).
Vanel responded, “You know, if you look deep in your heart, you know I’m correct.” Chenar responded, “I don’t approve of every impulse I have. I am not a slave to my desires. I am a Jedi.”
Chenar offers amnesty of sorts. “No one has to know that you fell. If you turn back to the light, I will make sure the Jedi Council doesn’t find out. Return to the path of Luke Skywalker (and not the path of his father, Darth Vader).”
Vanel responded, “You talk about being enslaved, not seeing the chains that society has put on you.” He stops speaking then, seeing it to be pointless. Instead, he’s going to be mind-projecting ideas to him, showing that he is more powerful mentally (while Chenar is more powerful physically). “You can be so more stronger, more powerful, than what the galaxy allows you to be.”
Chenar scoffed at the mind-projecting. “And what am I to do with this power? Bring evil instead of good? A poor trade!” Chenar then takes the lightsaber in his hand and activates it, preparing for a fight. “The village must root out the cancer of the dark side. Return back to the brotherhood that is greater than the Sith. Sith, turn from darkness, return to the light.”
As Chenar prepares to use his lightsaber, Vanel gets ready to use Force Combat.
Chenar draws upon the energy of all the dead Jedi, specifically the energy from the dead guardians of the Old Republic, and starts slashing away at Vanel.
Vanel said, “It’s time for change.” as he cast his Force powers to protect himself from Chenar.
Chenar tries to redeem Vanel: “See, it’s for good. Use the Force for good, knowledge. Unity is our strength, you can’t triumph over us! For we guard justice, not for peace or for myself.”
Chenar continued attacking Vanel, striking him with his lightsaber (thanks to excellent advice from Jerad). “The time for dialogue is over! Fall like the Sith before you…”
Vanel wildly leaping, jumping around using The Force, while using Force projections to distract Chenar. Parkouring, Force-Fu, manipulations…all to prove the superiority of The Force (Vanel) over that of the physical body (Chenar). “The mind will always overcome the body.”
…except that Chenar was still willing to fight, still able to fight, and the mind can tire itself out easily. Vanel himself is getting exhausted. He still fought to the bitter end, but eventually collapsed due to exhaustion.
Chenar, winning the conflict, offers Vanel a choice: “Redeem yourself…or die.” Vanel reluctantly snaps out of his desire for the dark side, and has redeemed himself, coming back to the light and feeling sorry for what he has done.

Aftermath/Epilogue

Both Chenar and Vanel heard slow clapping coming from Mission Vao’s holocron. She was observing the fight the whole time.
Chenar is badly bleeding now from the conflict, close to dying. It’s now up to Vanel to decide whether to save him or not – by giving him a demand. Since Vanel is now part of the Light, he decides to ask Chenar to help him in his quest to conquer the Independent Planet of Coruscant for the Jedi Order. Chenar agreed to the demand and then asked for medical assistance (which was given to him by putting him in a bacta tank).
Chenar survives his injuries, but loses his athletic talents, and must now walk with a cane.
Vanel went to a medic-bot to see if he was injured. The medic-bot said he was doing fine. Vanel however covertly went over to the black market and bought a “mind-clouding” drug to help ease the pain of the memories of his dark side actions. Vanel, of course, claimed the medic-bot gave him said drug. When Chenar does his usual mind-scan, he detects the mind-clouding drug and is thoroughly confused.
Mission Vao’s holocron was interrogated by the Jedi and then unceremoniously left in the Jedi archives. Since Mission Vao is not a Sith, she will not be placed under ‘lock-and-key’. Without Mission Vao to lead the anti-Czerka terrorists, it’s clear that VaoCorp is now officially extinguished.
Jerad herself was also interrogated by Chenar and Vanel. Jerad explained that she joined The Railroad to infiltrate the organization – doing so could help understand the organization was doing, as well as promoting the chaos and disorder necessary to prevent one organization from dominating the galaxy. When Jerad realized what Moff Shan was doing (rebooting the galaxy), she panicked, and out of fear, created the Light-Sided Sith Order.
Vanel gave Jerad the option of leaving the Jedi Order, but asked her to say since three Jedi together would do a better job (unity is better than division, after all). Jerad agreed to stay with the Jedi Order, and Chenar decided to provide assistance to stop anyone from doing a reboot – establishing contacts with professors in the University of Coruscant.
Due to Vanel’s prior tampering, some of Jerad’s followers did indeed fall to the dark side, forming their own small-scale Dark Side cults. It took a month for both Chenar and Vanel to root out the followers.
Chenar hired Mandalorian bounty hunters to root out the rest of the anti-Czerka terrorists. That took a year to do.
By then, Marphux the Hutt agreed to work with Czerka instead of opposing them, considering any such opposition to be fruitless (and being content with his control over the Undercity). Czerka’s power over The Promenade is now secure.
Finally, both Vanel and Chenar traveled to the Independent Planet of Coruscant. Since Coruscant is a massive planet (1 trillion permanent residents), they are reliant solely on algae farms to feed their population. Chenar offered Coruscant’s leaders a chance to get better, finer food delivered to the planet…and in return, the Senate agree to surrender their sovereignty to the Jedi Order. The local authorities are still left in power, but the Jedi still are the de facto rulers. Vanel’s demand from Session 1 was finally fulfilled.

Postscript:

Originally, Chenar suggested that the professors in the University of Coruscant should try to detect any strange temporal anomalies (to see if a reboot is taking place), but I stated that (at least in my personal view) the reboot won’t happen via time travel – even though I know that Star Wars is not really hard sci-fi. (The only time travel that is known to exist in Star Wars Legends causes closed time loops, which aren’t really good for retconning and rebooting galaxies.)
Instead, rebooting would happen similar to SCP-2000, where society gets destroyed and then rebuilt from the ground up, using cloning, fake ruins, and false memory implants. Still, it might make sense for the professors to be able to detect that type of activity taking place – after all, Star Wars isn’t really hard sci-fi. So the professors are still able to detect something, just not temporal anomalies.