Exploring Mataou - Dark Secrets and Lightsabers

A light of hope in a dark place, Robo guided Tek and Droo in their search for kyber crystals

### Runtime

2:55:01

*Our heroes continue to discover the strange nature of this Village, the mayor conducted lottery sacrificial hanging to appease "ghosts". Callen wins a mayor's drinking beerstein and romances the stone ... heart of a maiden. Katira discovers the truth about the hanging but internalizes her anguish and tells no one; she is also depressed because there is nothing of value to loot on Mataou. Bota Zi tries to win the planet for the sake of the New New Republic. Meanwhile, Droo and Tek explore the caverns of an underground maze, befriend a Robot named Robo and discover the man that was hanged by the Village People. Droo and Tek discover the Kyber crystal area and craft their very first lightsabers. They then return to the tavern and make everyone feel terrible for hanging the dead man and everyone leaves the planet.*

## **Previously**

*Tying up the loose ends left behind by the storied life of Bota Zi, those heroes who went to lay claim to Zardra’s space transport thoroughly embarrassed her allies in combat. Though initially appearing to be in dire straights, nearly all of the opposing fighters lay dead after Droo opened fire with the transports weapons. Zardra’s oldest living ally, Puggles Trodd agreed to end the blood feud in exchange for his ship and his life.*

*As everyone returned to Cloud City to clean the sand out of everything they own, they were met by Dask Ra’tava and the Twilight Council. The Jedi Master informed the group that the time had come for Droo and Tek to take the next step in their Jedi path: the creation of their lightsabers. As everyone tagged along to the mysterious planet of Mataou, it soon became evident that the dyad would be taking this next step unaided by those not initiated into the mysteries of the force. After bumbling through their interactions with the villagers on the planets surface, the party split.*

*With Tek and Droo moving wherever the force lead them, Callen, Katira, and Bota decided it was high time to get a drink.*

## **Recap**

### **A Brief History of (Our) Time**

> "*What is this place?*"
> ― Droo
>
>

> "*it’s the village…*"
> ― Jordan
>
>

> "*Does that make those the village people?*"
> ― Tek
>
>

The planet of Mataou is a hidden gem within the galaxy. Dominated by rolling plains, large forests, giant mountains, rolling hills and coastal regions, the planet was once a purse world of Hutt space. As the influence of the Hutts diminished over the ages, they withdrew from the planet, taking most of their resources with them and leaving behind ruins built to promote their ego. It is currently inhabited by a small group of survivors that crashed here in their lifeboats after escaping from the planet Anoat when it was gassed by the Empire.

The people are a mixture of humans and a few gold skinned Nothoiin survivors of Anoat. Though they came from an advanced planet, they are quite primitive. Living in structures built from the planet’s resources, they are primarily hunter gatherers. The village looks to be a small farming community, with the central building being their bar

The group has arrived on the planet directly from Cloud City, flying in the *Wookiee Punch* while Dask Ra'tava, Droo Vos, Tek Krodak, and the rest of the Twilight Council arrived in a lambda-class Imperial shuttle. During the trip, Dask instructed Droo and Tek in their ability to sense force - essentially getting a feel for the ambient leaning and magnitude of the force in their vicinity.

### **Callen's Finest Hour**

Heading outside the village as the force lead them, Droo and Tek find themselves standing in front of a nearby hill that has been carved into the image of a Hutt spewing water from its mouth in the form of a creek. Unsure of how to proceed, they both settle into the force and meditate in hopes of determining the next best course of action.

Left behind in the town, the other three members of the party gladly head to the bar to enjoy their freedom from immediate concern.

> "*Callen, you’re an alcoholic. What looks like the best way to enter this building?*"
> ― Katira
>
>

> "*By having me go in first!*"
> ― Callen entering the front door
>
>

Walking right in, Callen Mutig barely takes notice as several locals appear startled. He immediately goes to sit down at the bar and falls to the ground as his stool collapses under him. Following behind, Katira Eve notices that the bartender isn’t very welcoming, and instead opts to ask the barmaid for a drink. Glad to have an excuse to leave, the barmaid rushes to the back to get the drink. Last to enter, Bota Zi asks if they can have a few drinks, to which the bartender says yes, so long as they leave their weapons where they can see them.

> "*My wife made that chair!*"
> ― Bartender
>
>

> "*Well I’m not paying for it.*"
> ― Callen
>
>

> "*Did he break some of your stuff too?! I leave this guy on my ship and suddenly I have puke and broken bottles everywhere. Will you take credits for the chair, and some more for some drinks?*"
> ― Katira
>
>

Three large tankards are brought out for the group. Sensing that the villagers are legitimately worried, Katira asks what the problem seems to be as she begins to drink. The barmaid states that they don’t usually receive visitors, and lets something slip about having just rid the town of ghosts before the bartender tells her to shut up. As the doors open, the mayor walks in with a few other villagers. He tells the group that most people arriving on the planet don’t treat the villagers well. With a thinly veiled threat of what will happen if the group starts trouble, he claims that he hopes they come in peace and offers to drink together in the “spirit of community”.

Bota manages to calm the situation well enough, stating that the group has no desire to bring any problems after the mayor explains that others have come to the planet with thoughts of enslaving, extorting, or otherwise taking advantage of the population. Everyone agrees to drink to good times together, and the band strikes back up. While Callen dives right into his mini-keg of alcohol (tastes great, not very strong), Katira asks the barmaid what she meant by ghosts but is told that she must have misheard the girl by the mayor. Obviously attempting to change the focus of the group and impressed by Callen’s enthusiastic approach at finishing the keg, the mayor calls for a drinking contest.

In a round of 3 kegs, the mayor looks to have everything in hand as things start off but everyone is astounded as Callen blows the field away in the third round (-3cp to the alcoholic). Though Callen barely loses the final tiebreaker, he managed to thoroughly impressed the mayor. Stumbling behind the bar, the mayor grabs a metal cup off the back wall - one of the few metal items the village has - and gives it to Callen in a sign of respect.

### **Meet Robo**

Entering the tunnel under Hutt Hill, Tek and Droo find themselves in apparently unexplored ruins. Attempting to sense any life in the area, they get a vague feeling that there is life deeper in. Before they take the obvious route, Tek attempts to force push the wall (yep… you read that right) in the direction of the life they feel.

> "*I can try to force push that wall!*"
> ― Tek
>
>

> "*Yeh! Do that!*"
> ― Droo
>
>

As the wall fails to yield to Tek’s powers, they duo heads in the only available direction and stumbles into a droid pointing a blaster at them. He speaks in Huttese, telling them to put their hands up and come with him to the acid pools.

> "*The acid… pools?*"
> ― Droo
>
>

> "*They’re pools of acid.*"
> ― Hutt Droid
>
>

Trying his favorite tactic, Tek attempts to force push the droid to the ground (-2cp) and succeeds. Droo takes the blaster from the droid after it is knocked to the ground, and Tek stuns it with his own blaster before reprogramming it to help them. Bringing it back online, they ask what was going on with these acid pits. The droid informs them that he was recently reprogrammed by his new master to throw any intruders into the acid pits.

Using the reprogrammed droid as a guide, Tek and Droo make their way deeper into the ruins. As the droid has them stand back behind a corner, two more guards walk down a hallway ahead. Droo manages to convince Tek to avoid any combat, and Tek instead locks the doorway the two droids just walked past (-2cp). With a bit of breathing room now available the two settle and meditate in the force, hoping to sense the best course of action to follow next.

### **Meanwhile, at the Bar**

Back in town, the bar has been steadily filling with village people and things seem to be going quite well. Sensing that there may not be a better moment than this, Katira approaches Bota Zi to get something off her chest.

> "*Look… I like you… well enough. I mean, I killed some random lady because of you! But I can’t get over this whole you owned a slave colony thing. I can’t… I can’t work for you anymore. I’m not an ambassadorial aide anymore. Here’s my badge.*"
> ― Katira
>
>

> "*I didn’t even know we gave you a badge… What is this?*"
> ― Bota Zi
>
>

Also at the bar, the mayor and Callen are passing the time stumbling over their own words, catching up on the state of the galaxy. The mayor is stunned to hear that Palpatine is dead, the Empire has fallen, and a New Republic is rising. Bota, somewhat more sober, steps in to give the mayor a more pristine overview and the mayor announces to the entire bar that they’ll be drinking all night in celebration. As the band pauses, stunned in the moment, Callen convinces the mayor to get onstage and give another speech.

Sensing an opportunity, Katira uses the mayors speech as a distraction to sneak into the back room of the bar. Walking past Little Gregor trying to sneak a beer, she asks the barmaid about the ghosts that she mentioned earlier. Hiding in the back of the room, the maid says that before the group arrived, there had been these ghostly skeletons that would pass through the village at night. The mayor and the village elders claimed that the only way to stop them was to sacrifice someone, but that only made things worse.

> "*Did you kill someone?!*"
> ― Katira
>
>

> "*I didn’t… we just sort of had a lottery and then we hung someone.*"
> ― Barmaid
>
>

> "*From the gallows tree…*"
> ― Katira
>
>

> "*Yeah! How did you know?!*"
> ― Barmaid
>
>

> "*It’s literally called a gallows tree.*"
> ― Katira
>
>

### **The Hanged Man**

Sensing a small dark side nexus further along in the caverns, the Hutt droid “Robo” informs Tek and Droo that there are three more droids further ahead. He then moves forward in an attempt to distract them

> "*Hey guys, let’s all go to the acid pits together… I love dropping people in them, let’s all go together.*"
> ― Robo
>
>

Immediately suspicious, the other three droids turn to open fire on Robo as Tek and Droo turn the corner and shoot first. Droo misses in her excitement, and Tek manages two hits for light damage. Droo takes two more shots but only manages to to hit the ceiling and the floor, and Tek disables the droids alone as Robo twitches on the ground.

Walking further in, Robo grabs on to Droo’s ankle and asks that she throw him in the acid pits now that he has died. With three partially functional droids and one completely destroyed Robo, Tek and Droo opt to cannibalize the three damaged droids. Tek takes a moment to concentrate, and succeeds in repairing Robo.

Entering into the final room in the Hutt ruins, a man can be seen banging repeatedly on a computer console in the center of the room. Approaching, they see panic in the man’s eyes and noose marks on his neck. Droo attempts to calm the man, and he points to the nearby wall where they can see his sad life story written out in blood:

> "*My name is Armitage Archer, born 24BBY on Anoat. I was sentenced to death by the villagers here for no apparent reason. Please do not let me be forgotten.*"
>
>
>

As they finish reading the writing on the wall, life fades from the man. Looking around, they find a hole dug into the ground that appears to go further down. Robo has no knowledge of the hole, and their sense a strong light side presence prompts them to go ahead.

> "*Can we call to the others in town? Let them know: Hey, we found a man in this cave, and he’s hung*"
> ― Tek
>
>

### **Inside Information**

Still stunned at the realization that the town holds a dark secret, Katira probes the barmaid further. Though Katira is obviously shaken by the news, the barmaid states that she has only ever known this planet and that they trust the elders and the mayor to lead them. Even more disturbing, the people assumed the “sacrifice” held the night before was successful because the body wasn’t on the gallows tree when they woke in the morning. Attempting to glean more information from Little Gregor leads nowhere, and Katira takes a look around for any further clues but doesn’t have any luck. She heads out the back door to get some fresh air.

Still in the bar, Bota presents himself as a New Republic Ambassador formally and offers to help the people of Mataou. The mayor is excited at the chance to resettle their people, and it appears that nearly all of the populace would like to leave as well. Bota recognizes the interest of the villagers as an opportunity to safeguard the kyber crystals on Mataou, and attempts to provide space transports to the people in exchange for the sale of their land.

> "*I want to persuade the mayor to sell me a tract of land.*"
> ― Bota
>
>

> "*She’s got HUUUGE… tracts of land!*"
> ― David
>
>

Callen finds himself left alone to mingle with the locals, and takes the opportunity to invite another barmaid out onto the dance floor. As she enthusiastically trips over her own feet, Callen begins to play a somewhat romantic game. Each of them gets to ask the other a question as they dance.

> "*What makes you have a frowny face?*"
> ― Barmaid
>
>

> "*This… \*clinks cup\**"
> ― Callen
>
>

> "*That?*"
> ― Barmaid
>
>

> "*Yes, because it’s almost empty.*"
> ― Callen
>
>

The pair continue to talk and dance, eventually moving into the back room and building a connection as the night wears on.

### **Return of the Jedi**

Passing through the crawlspace that they discovered in the ruins underground, Tek and Droo emerge into a small cave. An extension connects their entrance to an island, surrounded by crystal clear water that is littered by the remains of broken Hutt droids. Guarding the pass and circling the island, crumbling statues of robed figures stand watch in silent reverence.

As the two initiates reach the island, they finally find their crystals and concentrate on the task of building their first lightsabers:

* Droo builds a lightsaber with an aquatic theme, the curved hilt resembling a beautiful seashell. She ignites the blade below the surface of the water, and a brilliant blue emits from the blade.

* As Tek concentrates next to her, he constructs a more traditional blade that would be recognized by any who remember the Jedi Knights of the Old Republic. As he ignites the blade, the top opens, and an unconventional emitter shines with a green light. As Tek holds the blade up, Droo notices that the emitter was modified to create a broader, flat blade that comes to a point as an extended triangle.

With their task completed the two head back to town with Robo, excited to show off their fancy new weapons.

> "*Do you remember… the guy who told us not to let his story die… do you remember his name?*"
> ― Droo
>
>

> "*He never told us his name, did he?*"
> ― Tek
>
>

The dyad enter the bar to an uncomfortable silence as every villager stares in object horror at Robo. Hardly missing a beat and having some sense of the problem that was recently experienced by the village, Droo breaks the quiet with an uncharacteristic confidence welling up after having passed such an important trial.

> "*Everyone, this is our friend. He’s not a ghost, he’s a droid, he’s a good boy… and he saved out lives.*"
> ― Droo
>
>

> "*Any questions? By the way, we met the guy you hung.*"
> ― Tek
>
>

> "*Yeah… he was hung.*"
> ― Droo
>
>

The villagers all accept the statement without argument. With the revelation that the Empire has been overthrown, and the opportunity to escape the planet at last they break back into celebration for their potential future. The mayor agrees to Bota’s offer for ships in exchange for their land, and Bota quietly plans to transfer the land to the Twilight Council for the protection of the Jedi ruins. He casually tosses out the idea that *Droorassic Park* could be established here and an excited Droo enthusiastically jumps on board, even considering reprogramming the remaining droids to guard the area as well.

## **Featured Characters**

### **Our Heroes**

* Bota Zi
* Callen Mutig
* Droo Vos
* Katira Eve
* Tek Krodak

### **NPCs**

* Bartender
* Barmaid
* Mayor of Mataou
* Little Gregor
* “Robo” the Hutt Droid

## **Inventory**

* +metal mug - engraved “World’s Best Mayor” (Callen)
* -3cp for drinking contest (Callen)
* -2cp for Force Push of a droid (Tek)
* -2cp to lock door (Tek)
* -1 force point to build lightsaber (Droo)
* -1 force point to build lightsaber (Tek)
* +curved hilt aquatic blue lightsaber - functions underwater (Droo)
* +green flat blade lightsaber (Tek)

## **Notes**

* Countdown continues: 5 missions remaining for Blaine’s Ghtroc Freighter
* Even though the other three droids would have been nearly identical and three times as effective, Robo was saved due to Droo’s nostalgia
* Droo Skill Gains:
	+ Force Sense
	+ Concentrate
	+ Life Sense
	+ Force Pull
	+ Accelerate Healing
* Tek Skill Gains:
	+ Force Sense
	+ Life Detection
	+ Life Sense
	+ Accelerate Healing
	+ Cyber Sense

## **Quotations**

> "*Tek… is this a Hutt? Is this a Hutt hut?!*"
> ― Droo
>
>

> "*I swear we don’t mean you any harm. We’re just here with some friends on a field trip.*"
> ― Katira
>
>

> "*We may be humble folk, but we will fight to defend our village of hope… Hope… that is the name of the village.*"
> ― Mayor of Mataou
>
>

> "*Alright… roll your force push.*"
> ― Jordan
>
>

> "*Tek, that roll doesn’t matter… AND, if you’re keeping up your life sense, roll at -1D*"
> ― Katira
>
>

> "*Don’t Palpatine us Katira!*"
> ― Droo
>
>

> "*Wait… where is Droo?*"
> ― Tek
>
>

> "*Alright, use your life sense to find Droo.*"
> ― Katira
>
>

> "*How many other droids are there here?*"
> ― Tek
>
>

> "*Six, including me.*"
> ― Hutt Droid
>
>

> "*Are the others going to be hostile toward us?*"
> ― Droo
>
>

> "*Uh… they want to throw you into the acid pits.*"
> ― Hutt Droid
>
>

> "*Can you convince them not to?*"
> ― Droo
>
>

> "*Hmm… no… I can hold them off though.*"
> ― Hutt Droid
>
>

> "*But they’re your friends, right?*"
> ― Droo
>
>

> "*More like… work related acquaintances.*"
> ― Hutt Droid
>
>

> "*Palpatine… he’s dead.*"
> ― Callen
>
>

> "*How did you know?! The last time you were awake, Alderaan was a planet!*"
> ― Katira
>
>

> "*I’m sorry what they did to your home, but at least it’s still here.*"
> ― Callen
>
>

> "*What? Wait… what happened to Alderaan?*"
> ― mayor
>
>

> "*You see Little Gregor in here, trying to drink one of his stolen beers.*"
> ― Jordan
>
>

> "*Man… too bad I don’t still have some spice, this would be a great opportunity to give him some.*"
> ― Katira
>
>

> "*That would definitely be a dark side point.*"
> ― Jordan
>
>

> "*Just talking about it is a dark side point.*"
> ― Bota
>
>

> "*Yep, that’s strike one Katira.*"
> ― Jordan
>
>

> "*Can we do like… spark to spark?*"
> ― Droo
>
>

> "*What is that?!*"
> ― Jordan
>
>

> "*Like mouth to mouth, except for droids.*"
> ― Droo
>
>

> "*Ah, so it was the thin skeletal robots moving through the village all along.*"
> ― Tek
>
>

> "*Or… the droids are ghosts!*"
> ― Droo
>
>

> "*Why would you - as a Jedi - want to create a droid that kills Jedi?!*"
> ― Jordan
>
>

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