Nashasil'ev'nuruodo and the Ancient Castle

We resolved our bounty hunter problem and discovered a whole new level of trouble in the same breath. Having accepted a commission to travel into the Unknown Regions, nowhere near the Ascendancy, we decided to leave the fellow on a world out of communications with Empire space. Our employers appeared to be relic hunters of some sort and they ignored our prisoner as part of our payment for the run.

During our hyperspace journey, I did manage to get the data retrieval device to work for me. It is a "holocron" that contains the knowledge of many Jedi. It is only accessible to those who touch the Force and had decided that I had gained enough knowledge to access it. The speaker's dialect was difficult to understand, but eventually the entire crew was able to decipher it.

After a brief encounter with kilometer long space whales, we dropped our paying guests off on an extremely remote world. They were hiking into an ancient castle. We decided to explore the rest of the world and find a habitable area for the bounty hunter. He was dropped with some supplies and weapons. We found an ancient craft of Republic origins that contains the bones of a Human, along with a few small trinkets of value. I handed those over to the Ithorian. There was a quick combat resulting in the Eewuk preparing a large quantity of meat.

When we returned to the pickup point, no passengers. Assuming that they had run into the hungry creatures we had encountered, we went up to the castle in search of them. Their camp was guarded by a lone "droid." (Droids are mechanical creatures built by this society to do their menial labor and perform specialized functions. Rather than ensuring that all people of all abilities have employment, they use machines. Again, it is a point of economics.) We found their crushed bodies in the castle, but outside of a sealed door. Crushed, not eaten... it was not the same animal. As the crushing looked like it was done by a weapon, it implied intelligence.

After retrieving the bodies, the captain went through their documentation to determine their real purpose for coming to this remote place. He quickly passed the information to me, saying it should interest me. It did. They were at this place to research a possible connection between Sith Lords and an ancient species that had lived upon their homeworld of Alderaan. The leader was a professor from that world, pursuing research forbidden by the Empire. As I had already given the brief explanation that Sith were "evil Jedi," he thought me best suited to decide our course of action.

With an Inquisitor chasing us, my only thought was the possibility that he could find this place and loot it for things useful to him. I could not allow this to happen, so encouraged the crew to explore the castle. I did add the idea that professor's university might pay a bonus for confirmation or elimination of the man's theories. Using the holocron, we were able to determine that the writing on the doors and walls were indeed Sith.

We opened the door where we had found the bodies. There was a large creature inside who began immediately insulting me and saying that what he had wasn't mine. It also claimed to be a Sith Lord. After a brief exchange of fire, the "Sith Lord's" body was felled. It's alchemy had weakened enough as to be almost no threat. There was a large chest which we managed to open. It contained a first generation lightsaber and a block of material called cortosis. The captain and crew allowed me to retain these things.

We left, took the captain's Hutt his payment, and returned to Alderaan. During our hyperspace journey, I disassembled and reassembled the ancient lightsaber. It was much simpler than my own. As the crystal would serve the university no purpose, I kept it. Unlike our last time, they thoroughly searched us and our vessel. It was standard investigation, since we were returning with the body of some of their citizens. I fully expected to be completely disarmed. They merely returned my blade to me; explaining that it was allowed on their world, but I should avoid "Imperials seeing my religious artifact." The university did pay a reward for the information and accepted my donation of the ancient weapon.

Alderaan may be one of the few places I can claim as safe for me.