Boba Fett's Palace

**Hutt Castle**, often simply called **Jabba's Palace**, briefly **Bib Fortuna's palace** and later **Boba Fett's Palace** after its owners, was a large sandrock and durasteel complex located at the fringes of the Northern Dune Sea on the planet of Tatooine. Originally erected as a monastery of the B'omarr Order, the buildings eventually fell into the hands of four major crime lords: first an outcast and gang leader called Alkhara and later Jabba the Hutt, a notorious crime lord from Nal Hutta, then Jabba's majordomo Bib Fortuna and finally Boba Fett, who took over Jabba's criminal operations in 9 ABY, five years after the Hutt's death.

While the structure underwent many additions in the way of fortification and technological advances, the basic structure of the complex remained the same throughout its existence. Composed of a central rotunda and a taller spire adjacent to it, the ridge-side retreat also boasted an underground hangar and maintenance bay. Deep in the monastery's subterranean chambers, Jabba the Hutt made a throne room which sat on top of a pit that housed a pet rancor. The Hutt used the beast for a dual purpose: protection and entertainment. At the flick of a switch, a concealed door in the floor of the chamber could deposit a threatening guest into an inescapable pit while onlookers could watch as the rancor made short work of its meal.

## Characteristics

### Palace Rotunda interior

A large, squat rotunda topped with a ditanium-reinforced cupola, the palace was accessed via a dimly lit stone corridor which led from the main entry portcullis. A large durasteel door, the front gate was equipped with a semi-intelligent droid gatewatcher. This droid, little more than an electronic eye on a stick embedded in the gate itself, would interrogate visitors before deciding whether to allow them to enter. Once through the gate, the corridor led into the structure's central chamber the Great Room of the Enlightened, a vast and cavernous place that was filled with an eerie silence. Prayer banners hung from the ceiling, gently swaying over the multi-tiered chamber used as a place of worship for the disembodied brains of enlightened monks. Reposing in niches along the tiers that made up the chamber, the center of the room was occupied by floor-to-ceiling supports for the rotating ventilation wheel, which shifted the otherwise still air to keep the rotunda cool. The room was encircled on its exterior by a ceremonial concourse that ran underneath the cupola; weapons stations were scattered along the walkway which otherwise gave an unobstructed view of the Dune Sea.

The upper portion of the cupola was made up of several smaller rooms used strictly for maintenance, defense, and the everyday technical needs of the complex. Among the rooms located here was a hydroponics chamber where the amphibious delicacies of Jabba's diet were grown and genetically altered. Amongst the ventilation equipment and moisture converters was a chamber which had been taken over by a band of Jawas, scavenging what they could while attempting to remain undetected.

### Alkhara's tower and power facility

A nine-story tower named after the man who ordered its construction, this structure contained a circular stairway that spiraled down from its summit to its base. Capped with a communications dome, the tower's exterior was pockmarked by hyperwave transceivers that kept the palace tuned into the HoloNet and much less official communications networks.

Just to the north of Alkhara's tower stood a shorter rotunda that served as the main power facility to the complex. While the above-ground portion of the tower housed a holoprojector that displayed the entire galaxy, the subterranean base was home to the palace's major power facility. Reached by a spiraling stair, enjoyed by the B'omarr monks for the hours of meditative walking it provided, the power plant generated enough energy to power the palace without needing to connect to existing power grids. Off one of the plant's corridors, a forgotten B'omarr ritual room remained unnoticed. Inside the ornately decorated dome, a seemingly bottomless sacrificial pit was used to dispose of the brainless bodies of enlightened monks.

### Motor pool and subterranean passages

Located below ground, the motor pool garage area was carved out under Jabba's orders to contain the Hutt's many skiffs, barges, and animal mounts. Like the rest of the palace, the motor pool hangar had a polished stone floor and a massive durasteel gate that opened onto the harsh desert landscape of Tatooine. An underground roadway stemming from the hangar made a circuitous path from the palace to the city of Mos Eisley. Housing not only Jabba's sail barge the *Khetanna*, the hangar was home to the Bantha-II cargo skiffs that patrolled the grounds. As of 4 ABY, the motor pool was overseen by a Klatooinian named Barada.

Additional subterranean passages delved deeper into the ground than the motor pool. Long since forgotten, a chamber housing the regeneration gems of the B'omarr Order was protected by a triple set of heavy doors. As of 4 ABY, a looter had penetrated one of the doors after burrowing through a tunnel. Levels below that, the Hutt crime lord had established a spice-cultivating chamber, where only the highest quality of the illicit substance was produced.

### Throne room

A renovated B'omarr chapel, Jabba the Hutt made his throne room deep in the subterranean chambers of the palace complex. Accessed by a winding stone stair, the throne room's air was constantly filled with spiced t'bac smoke and the sounds of jizz per Jabba's delight in theatrics. Reposing on a large dais backed by a rotisserie cooker, Jabba could oversee the gathered masses he permitted to enjoy his company. Behind Jabba, his majordomo had their own private turbolift which allowed them to greet guests at the front gate, allowing for the crime boss' second in commanded to either welcome, turn away, or kill them. The likes of bounty hunters, assassins, smugglers and more filled out the often crowded alcoves of the chamber, many of whom plotted to one day overthrow the Hutt or kill him.

At the center of the room, the polished stone floor gave way to a viewing grille which looked down upon a large pit where Jabba's beasts would fight, entertaining the Hutt and his guests. Amongst the beasts were Jabba's prized rancor Pateesa and a krayt dragon. After Boba Fett took over the palace, the pit housed the rancor gifted to him by The Twins. A trap door in the floor in front of Jabba's dais could be opened by a trigger mechanism in the Hutt's hookah pipe, dropping threatening or otherwise bothersome guests into the pit to be devoured. Under Bib Fortuna's and later Fett's rule, the trap door could be activated by a button on the right armrest of the throne installed on the dais by Fortuna. The throne room was host to Jabba's private band, the Max Rebo Band in the Hutt's last days. The band, headlining vocalists Sy Snootles and Joh Yowza, performed at Jabba's whim, occupying a loft directly off of the chamber.

The largest alcove in the room, hosting the stairs to the Dancers' Pit, band lounge, and the massive private elevator that ferried Jabba up to his private chambers, was also home to a wall of trophies collected by the Hutt. Amongst these items were the taxidermied heads of a jerba and tauntaun and, for a short time, the carbonite-encased form of the smuggler Han Solo.

The levels below the throne room were prison cells for Jabba's enemies, torture chambers whose occupants often suffered a slow, public death. The boiler room that sat opposite the prison facility was overseen by the droid EV-9D9, a sadistic droid who oversaw that assessment of all droids that would see service in Jabba's court. Additionally, it was in these dank levels that the Gamorrean guards resided with their families. The males maintained order in the palace, while their women raised their children and kept the lower levels tidy. Many stairwells and ancient halls had been deliberately blocked with debris to keep out intruders, though it did not deter them from trying. There was also a large chamber where there was a pool. It had once served as Jabba's private quarters, but now the Hutt seldom left his platform in the throne room, and the abandoned chamber now served as a sort of communal space for his harem of slave girls.

### Sub-levels

Below the dungeon levels were cellars in which Jabba kept various flasks and barrels of clarets. Deeper were various passageways, tunnels and chambers in which the B'omarr monks lurked and went about their practices. Even deeper still below these levels were vast networks and labyrinths of tunnels and corridors.

## History

In 4 ABY, the rebel droids C-3PO and R2-D2 traveled to Jabba's Palace under Luke Skywalker's instructions as part of a mission to rescue Han Solo. Skywalker offered the droids as a gift in an attempt to secure the release of Solo, who was frozen in carbonite. As expected, Jabba refused and pressed the droids into his service. Later, Leia Organa arrived disguised as the bounty hunter Boushh with the captive Wookiee Chewbacca, Solo's co-pilot. She was joined by Lando Calrissian, who was disguised as one of Jabba's guards.

Leia managed to free Han from carbonite but was captured by Jabba. The following day, Skywalker arrived and reiterated his demand to free Solo and his friends. Jabba refused and threw Skywalker down the trapdoor to the rancor Pateesa, who also killed the Gamorrean guard Jubnuk. Skywalker managed to kill Pateesa by collapsing the dividing door on top of the rancor. Jabba attempted to feed Skywalker, Solo, and Chewbacca to the sarlacc at the Great Pit of Carkoon. However, the rebels escaped and killed Jabba and his henchmen, dealing a blow to his criminal empire.

While most of Jabba's courtiers followed him to the Pit, very few returned. Indeed, Jabba and most of his minions died in a fiery explosion that engulfed the *Khetanna*, his private sail barge and the Alliance members escaped. Some of those who survived returned to the palace in an attempt to take over the crime lord's empire or to steal his wealth. Following the death of Jabba, several of his employees including the beastmaster Malakili stayed at the palace waiting for a new Hutt to occupy the dais. As the food dwindled and water ran out, many of Jabba's former employees abandoned the castle. Malakili had been one of the last to leave the palace and Pateesa's unmoved corpse behind. He subsequently joined a community called Freetown, which was led by the lawman and Mayor Cobb Vanth, who enlisted Malakili's services in taming two rontos and a Huttlet named Borgo. The Red Key crime syndicate had attempted to install the Huttlet in Jabba's palace but Cobb foiled their plan.

Boba Fett and Indiana Jones entered Jabba's former palace sometime in 5 ABY, while fleeing from the Second Union and trying to rendezvous with Hondo Ohnaka, their client. They entered the empty palace through the great door after destroying the sentry guard. The palace was then the site of a shootout between the duo and the Union's soldiers.

The B'omarr Order was known to have reinstated control over the Palace sometime after Jabba's death. They allowed the bounty hunter J'Quille to join them during that time.

Sometime later, Bib Fortuna became a crime lord himself, succeeding Jabba as the master of the palace. Lyn Me, while staying on Tatooine around 9 ABY, heard rumors about Fortuna becoming the palace's ruler. During their exploration across the desert sands of Tatooine that same year, Boba Fett, Fennec Shand, and Me stumbled upon the palace. Shortly before, Fett and Shand had infiltrated the palace and retrieved his ship, the *Slave I*, which was kept in the garage of the palace. Given the amount of guards present on site, Fett said he and Shand would deal with the palace sometime after Lyn talked about the rumors she heard. After this, the three continued with their journey. After settling their debt to Din Djarin, Boba Fett and Fennec Shand attacked the palace, killing Fortuna and the guards, before Fett took the throne. When Fett and Shand departed the palace for Geonosis, Lyn Me threw a disco party in the throne room with several guests.

The B'omarr Monks continued to walk about the Palace premises during Fett's reign. Fett, who became the Daimyo of Mos Espa, received guests and accepted tributes in the throne room with Shand by his side. Fett utilized a bacta tank in the palace to heal from his scars. After Fett and Shand were ambushed in Mos Espa by six assassins of the Order of the Night Wind. Shand captured one of the attackers alive and brought him to the palace. After the assassin refused to give up any information to Fett, Shand dropped the prisoner to the rancor pit. The assassin, believing a rancor was in the pit, succumbed to his fear and claimed that Mayor Mok Shaiz hired him. The Night Wind assassin, though, had been fooled, as there was no rancor behind the door.

Later on, 8D8 gave Fett a presentation on the history of the territories of Jabba the Hutt and Bib Fortuna. As Fett and Shand discussed the assassin attack before, one of the Gamorrean guards came with news that one of Fett's vassals was wanting to speak with the Daimyo. Fett let the visitor enter the thrown room. The visitor introduced himself as a water-monger named Lortha Peel. 8D8 asked what Peel's petition to Fett was, to which Peel claimed that no one respected the new Daimyo. The droid angrily stopped the vendor, but Fett told his assistant to let Peel speak. Peel and the Daimyo then discussed the disorder amongst the residents of Mos Espa and the water-monger asked for Fett to help get rid of the Mods, a group of cybernetically enhanced individuals that were stealing from him. Fett visited the mods, but after hearing their situation, he chose to hire the gang members instead.

Later, the bounty hunter Krrsantan infiltrated the palace while Fett was in his bacta tank and attempted to assassinate Fett. Krrsantan failed and was captured.

## Appearances

* Counterattack (First appearance)
* A Job Worth Payment (Mentioned only)
* *A Third Time* (Mentioned only)
* Beyond the Dune Sea II
* The Sand Will Provide
* *Boba and Fennec*
* *Lyn Me: The Dancer*
* Gambit on Geonosis
* *The Further Exploits of Indiana Jones*
* From the Desert Comes a Stranger
* Invaders on Their Land
* The Sun Sets and It Rises
* The Believer
* *From a Certain Point of View* (Mentioned only)