Dhugg Star: A KOTR diary (spoiler warning)

[EagleFan]

My name is Dhugg Star, I have been a smuggler for many years before being recruited to fight against the Sith, to help keep the Emprire from ruthlessly imposing their will on many.

My most recent assignment is on the Endar Spire. We are hunting down Darth Malak, the leader of the Sith. Darth Malak has taken over as leader after Bastilla, a young but strong Jedi, helped take out Darth Revan. Unfortunately Malak seems even more evil than Revan as the Dark Side has grown strong within him.

Bastilla is key to our efforts as she holds the very rare power of Battle Meditation. Because of this, I know that we are in great danger as she is the most hunted of the Jedi. Malak knows that if he can get her out of the way, he can crush us all with his power.


I was awaken from a nap while off duty in the most rude ways, with sirens and explosions as we are under attack. I managed to clear my head and headed towards the bridge with a fellow soldier. We encountered several Sith soldires on the way and we managed get the drop on them and blast them straight to hell.

As we neared the bridge, we encountered a Dark Jedi who was battling a Jedi who Bastilla herself had chosen to come on this mission. The battle was glorious to watch but an explosion did them both in while in the midst of the fight. We need to get to the bridge, and fast.


On the bridge we found only Sith soldiers. An explosion on the bridge could kill us all so we swtiched to our swords and engaged in hand to hand combat with the soldiers. It was a very tough fight but we managed to win the fight only to here from Carth, a fellow solder who is usually maning the bridge. He was at the escape pods and let us know that Bastilla had just left the ship and we were the only ones left. We had little time before the Sith completely anhilated the ship. We had to get to the escape pods.

As we headed towards the escape pods, a Dark Jedi appeared and my fellow soldier, whose name I bnever got, chose to sacrifice himself to give me time to escape. I headed towards the escape pod section of the ship while he engaged the Dark Jedi.


I cam across another Sith soldier but a blast from a grenade and a quick blaster shot took care of him. As I entered the maintenance section of the shop, Carth came on the transmitter and warned me of several Sith soldiers right behind the door I was about to go through.

I found a security panel and issued an over-ride to the panel that was in the same room as the Sith. It exploded with a glorious burst and took out the soldiers, that shuold make it much easier to get by them now. I found a couple more grenades from them, and some more credits (hey, sometimes looting the dead can be a good thing, at least when it helps my bank account-- once a smuggler, always a smuggler).


The next room was the escape pods. I entered a pod and was jetisoned towards Taris. The impact knocked me out, for what ended up being a couple days. I awoke shaken, after havnig a strange dream about what appeared to be Bastilla fighting a Dark Jedi. Where am I and what is happening?

[Nyarlahotep]

Well this doesn't make waiting for the sequel any easier.

[GoldenEagle]

Hi Dhugg.

[EagleFan]

As I come to, I notice that I am in some sort of apartment. Carth is there and he tells me that I have been out for quite some time.

After the opd crashed on Taris he carried me away from teh crash site before the Sith found it. From there he found this abandoned apartment in a run-down building in the Upper City.

Taris used to be a thriving city but it is now under Sith control. They have a blockade that does not allow anything off the planet and the people are scared of what the Sith would do it angered.

There are now three very distinct regions of Taris. The Upper City, which contains the more influencial people on the planet. The Lower City, a city of corrumption and gang violence. The last is a place where few dare to travel, even the Sith do not go down there. This part of the planet is infested with diseased mutants and the extremely poor who spend their days just hoping to keep from being eaten by the Ranghoul mutants.


From what Carth has heard, Bastilla might be in the Lower City, possibly being kept by one of the gangs. We need to find a way there.


As we leave the apartment, we encounter three Sith soldiers in an arguement with a couple locals. One of the locals mouths back to the Sith and they gun him down without batting an eye.

One of the Sith notice us and declares us as Republic Sympathizers. Before we know it, a fire-fight has broken out. Carth get the drop on two scouts and finishes them off quickly. I pick off the leader but take a couple of hits. Luckily we have a couple medical packs from the Endar Spire so I will be fine.


The second local is okay and tells us that he will move the bodies so the building is not swarming with Sith. This complex is not usually frequented by humans as it seems to be the 'low rent' district of the Upper City.



After leavnig the building, it's time for some exploring. I found a medical building where I have picked up a couple more medical packs and was told about a serum that may cure Ranghoul disease. This is within a Sith base in the Upper City. The doctor wants the serum to be able to cure those who are infected.

On the way out, I stumbled upon a room with two Republic soldiers in a suspended sate. They are dying and the doctor explained that he is attempting to keep them from suffering and keeping them from the Sith. He appears to be genuine in his dislike of the Sith.

As I left the building, the doctor's assistant approached me and told me that I could receive wuite a generous sum if I took teh serum to Davik instead of the doctor. Davik is the leader of one of the gangs from the Lower City and it seems that he could make a lot of money if he got his hands on that serum. I told him that I would consider it, Carth didn;t seem to pleased with that response. Realistically, we could really use the extra credits to help arm ourselves.


After leaving, I found a supply store with an owner who would like to see the Sith leave, but is really only concerned with staying in business. I saw a really nice poiece of armor that would come in handy in a fire-fight but I don't have the cash for it right now.


As we left the store, we headed to the Cantina. Inside I bought a deck of Pazaak cards and lost the little bit of money that I had to the resident pazaak player.

After learning a lesson the hard way, I entered the bar area of the Cantina and found a female Sith soldier. She was in casual clothes so I didn't know she was a Sith soldier at first. For a Sith, she was very hot. We got talking and she invited me to a party after her shift today. I said I would try to make it (maybe it could be a way to get to the inside of that base, now I just have to find the damn base).


In need of money, I entered the dueling arena against some guy nicknamed dead-eye. That was the easiest duel that I ever fought and earned a quick 100 credits.

The crowd seemed to like me and I weas talked into fighting "Two-Fingers". Doesn't sound like this should be much of a challenge, and it wasn't. That earned me a quick 200 credits. This isn't too bad.

Next, I went up against a lady named Ice. She was tough and kicked my ass a coulpe times before I finally put her away to move up the ladder. This was a hard earned 300 credits. One more win and I can go get that armor.

My next opponent came at me with no mercy and quickly dispatched me several times. I finally ended up gettnig the better of him and earned 400 credits. I headed over and picked up the armer after that fight. In the process I ran into some snabby rich girl who thought I was a waiter. She got upset over the way I told her that I wasn;t and ran out threatening to tell her father, big deal.

I came back and fought one tough little psychotic SOB named Twitch. This is a very fitting name for the little guy. He was a slipper little guy who gave me more than my share of humiliation. After several attemtps and using up the rest of my medical packs, I ended up winning 500 credits and being named champion.

I was told that no-one would fight me, but there is some ex0-champion from the death-match days but he doesn't fight the new "non death match" style. It would take some convincing to get him out of retirement (wink wink).

On the way out, I ran into some cocky little SOB who ended up being that ex-champion. He got under my skin enough that I challenged him to that match. It would be a death-match. What the hell have I gotten myself into? This would take some setting up so I have to come back later (maybe I could accidentally forget about it).


On the way back to the apartment, we ran across a couple thugs mugging what looked like that snobby brat from the Cantina. They got the dopr on us before we knew it the fight was on. Carth took one out with his blaster and I took on another with my vibrablade. I took him down in a fierce duel. The little brat ran off, still calling for her daddy.

Tiem to head back to the apartment and figure out what our next step would be.

[EagleFan]

I'll be posting more later tonight. I just wanted to do something a little different after only doing TCY/FOF dynasties. The game itself is the only Star Wars and only RPG game that has ever pulled me in. I usually can't stand them. I figured that this game has enough added side quests and plot twists to make it interesting enough (if my writing skills, or lack thereof, can being that across to the reader).

[sabotai]

Cool. I always wanted to post a narrative/diary like dynasty for an RPG, but didn't think it would work since they mostly have a linear plot and I'd most likely ruin the game for people (although doing it for Morrowind or a game like that could be doable). Looking forward to this.

[EagleFan]

After restnig up, we headed out to see if we could find Sarna's apartment (the Sith chick that invited me to the party). On the way, we stumbled across a couple of Davik's thugs trying to shake down a citizen.

The noticed us and before we knew it, the fight was on. A coulpe quick blaster shots took care of them. The old man tried to tell us his story but that's not really my concern right now so I shooed bhim on his way before more of Davik's thugs arrived.


We found the apartment building and did a little investigating before heading to theparty. We found several people who were afraide that Davik sent us to kill them, hat guy sure gets around. We told them that we weren;t from Davik, sort of (we never actually said that we were so I guess that means that we're not, right?).

We found about half a dozen off duty Sith officers at Sarna's place for the party. The had already been drinking rather heavily when we arrived and Sarna seemed to hbe egging them on saying that you need to live a little, I'm really starting to like her style.

After we 'socialized' for a while (talk about feeling a little uneasy), the alcohol started to take it's tol and they began to pass out one by one. Carth and I realized this and egged them on even more. As they were all passed out, we were able to go through their things and found some Sith armor, among other things, that might come in handy. Not to be rude, but we felt it was best for us to leave at that point.


After searching aruond the city for a while, we found an elevator that went to the Lower City but it was guarded by the Sith with orders to only allow other Sith down there. We went out of sight and put on the Sith armor to see if that would work for us.

That seemed to fool the guard enough as he let us through, letting us know that he was glad that he didn;t have our assignment because of the gang violence down below.


When we reached the Lower City, we were greated by a fight between the Beks and Vulkars. The few Vulkars defeated the Beks and then set their sights on us, believing that we were Sith because of the armor.

I was overrun by the three Vulkars and the next thing I knew, I was coming to and there were three Vulkar bodies laying on the ground as Carth had defeated them. He is a true soldier.

A couple shots from the med pack had me feeling much better and we decided to see what we could find from the bodies. A couple grenades and some credits whould help us out.

From there we wandered dow a hallway and came across two Vulkar guards. The engaged us and I first threw a greneade their way injuring them quite badly. A couple baster shots finished them off. We tried to see what the door was that they were guarding and it appears to be the Vulkar base but there seems to be no way in.


A little more wandering and we came upon a Lower City apartment complex. We decided to rest a bit to allow ourselves to recouperate before tackling the apartments, as they may be crawling with danger from what this portion of the planet looks like.

[EagleFan]

During our momentary break, Carth seemed to have a lot of things that he wanted to say, but kept himself from really opening up. All that I could get out of our conversation if is that he seems to trust no-one. He keeps talking of betrayal and questioning why I was on the ship. If I didn't need him to find Bastilla and get off thei rock, I would ditch him in a minuite. His outstanding combat skills aren;t worht the headache.


The first thing that we came across was a Cantina. Inside I found a nice old gentleman selling Pazaak cards so I picked up what should be a couple good cards. Theye didn;t help me as I lost 2 of 3 games to a resident Pazaak player. I have a feeling that he was cheating me with the number of 20's he was drawing straight up.

Carth and I headed deeper into the Cantina and saw who we later found out to be the famous countyu hunter Calo Nord. He was being hassled by three locals and he took them down with without even blinking and eye. His calling card seems to be counting to 3. It looks like if he begins to count, you should be somewhere else by the time he reaches 3 or you are in trouble.

I tried to talk to him and he began to count. That was enough for me to say nevermind and step away. We're here to find Bastilla, not get killed by some bounty hunter.

Further inside the Cantina we saw a young girl, who couldn't have been more than 15, who was bwing hassled by a couple of Valkars. She almost seemed to be inviting the trouble and then called over her friend, a Wookee. His presence quickly cause the Valkars to retreat and stop bothering her.

I had a brief converatsion with he and found out that her name is Mission and her friend is Zaalbar. I still have no realy idea how the two of them met and became friends, but they seem to keep each otehr out of trouble and afe down here. She does seem to have very good street smarts and knows a lot of what is going on the Lower City.

It seems that the Hidden Beks are the 'better' of the two gangs. The Valkars have been formed by a follower of the Beks who became greedy and now quite ruthless. The resulting gang was has been quite dangerous for all who ilve in the Lower City.

After she left, we did a little more seaching in the Cantina and first came across some danver who was auditioning. They wanted me to be her partner for some stupid reason. I told them to basically get lost, I have not time for stupid little things like that right now.

I then came upon Zax, if I remember his name correctly. He is one ugly SOB and he seems to be Davik's right hand man. He told me of a couple bounties that existed, both from Davik and from teh lovacal government. It seems that the duelist who has challenged me to a death match had a bounty out on his head, that may be a good way to earn some more respect and credits on this damn racok (might as well have a little fun while I'm trying to find Bastilla).


We left there and began to look around some more. We found the Hidden Beks base, which was being guarded so we stayed away for now as we didn;t want to stir up the guard, if it's anythying like the guards at the Vulkar base.

A few feet past that, there was an alley in which a discussion about owing money was being had. There were two people who seemed to owe Davik and one person trying to collect. When they were about to jump the one man, he whistled and out stepped a rather well defined man, an obvious soldier of some sort. Just the sight of this man seemed to have the other two opening their wallets and handing over money (hell they probably gave up more than they owed based on the looks on their faces).

As they walked past us, I had a very brief converation with the soldier. I believe his name as Candarous, but I can't recall for certain. He wasn't really interested in talking and I wasn't niterested in getting my ass kicked.


There were two more interesting finds in the Lower City. A guarded elevator shaft that lead into what locals call the depths of hell, a wasteland of disease and poverty. The other thing was an apartment complex that we felt we should come back tomorrow to explore as it was getting late and we were quite tired.


On the way back to the apartment, I attempted to talk to Carth some more. All that I could get out of him is that I soulnd't trust him, Bastilla or myself. There seem to be some serious issues that he is not dealing with righ tnow.