Tim, Gaila, and Grandmaster Carleon's other apprentice Sork (played by someone who dropped out at the very last minute) were sent by Grandmaster Carleon to investigate the steady disappearance of Adegan crystals. They went to the planet where the Republic security force said the trail had gone cold, the planet of Pelagon in the Tapani Empire.
As they arrived out of hyperspace in an XtO Paladin, a herglic freighter, who was being pursued and fired upon by another ship, buzzed them. The freighter asked for help, but was interrupted by a gruff voice claiming that the freighter was in violation of Iotran Legal codes, and that they were a member of the IBC sent to bring the criminal to justice. The freighter was forced down, but in the process the Iotran ship fired on the Jedi ship, which was attempting to intervene. A firefight would have ensued, if there was not a vested interest in the freighter. The herglic freighter would have crashed, but a planetary tractor beam pulled it into port.
Tim did attempted a hot landing in order to beat the Iotrans to the herglic ship; the strain on the hull caused and explosion causing injuries to Sork and waylaying him for a few days. Gaila stayed to tend to Sork and the ship. Tim hurried to the freighter to find local law enforcement and the two IBC (Iotran Braceman Council) on scene. The one in charge identified himself as Laderk and the other as Lomn. Both the Jedi and the Braceman investigated the ship. Laderk opened up a crate and a Grom Worm jumped out attacking him, and he died in seconds. In that crate, they found the Adegan crystals hidden inside bars of chocolate. Tim and Lomn went outside and argued over jurisdiction before going to interrogate the Herglic.
Tim made little progress with his questions, as the herglic was injured and resistant to reveal information. Tim stepped aside to contact Luc Cifer, a Jedi Knight and the grand protectorate of House Pelgia. (Grandmaster Carleon had given Tim this contact.) Lomn convinced the guard to allow him more questions. As Lomn was asking the herglic questions, he mysteriously died. He then noticed a little dart in the neck of the freighter pilot, and got the police officer present to be his witness that he did not kill the herglic. Meanwhile, Tim felt a disturbance in the force. He looked around and saw a running shadow in the distance and took pursuit. Lomn noticed Tim's sudden flight, and followed. Tim saw the culprit dressed all in black, as he jumped to the top of a five-story building from the ground.
Tim ran around the building to see the mystery man running towards a crowded market place far in front of him. So he commandeered a flying mount and took chase. Lomn also saw the black clad man jump the building, so he went to the top and also saw him running towards the market. He also saw Tim giving pursuit on the big bird. Not to be out done, Lomn jumped into a flitter that was parked on top of the roof, despite the fact he could not fly. Tim swooped the flying creature down towards the fleeing target, knocking him to the ground. Tim landed his mount and dismounted in time to see the black clad individual get up and draw a lightsaber. Tim held back his fear, and drew his waiting for his opponent to make the first move. Tim did not last that long against the much more skilled dark Jedi, and he quickly found himself without a weapon and pinned.
As his opponent got ready to deliver the finishing blow, Gaila leapt from a police car above, to his rescue. Meanwhile Lomn wasn't doing so good with flying the flitter, and promptly crashed it. He got to the fight scene in time to see the black clad mystery man fighting Gaila, with Tim running to receive his lightsaber. Lomn could not get a clear shot with his gun, though he attempted to train his weapon. Soon Tim was running into the fray. He would have been cut in half had he not sensed the Dark Jedi was about to draw a second lightsaber. Lomn now saw his opportunity: Gaila on the right and Tim on the left the Dark Jedi's midsection wide open, so he shot him. He fell to the ground and erupted in blue flame. Luc Cifer soon arrived and discouraged Tim from continuing the investigation, for the crystals were found. Luc Cifer also was skeptical that this Jedi was a Sith, and insisted that he must have been acting alone. Tim said he would remain to tie up any loose ends.
Gaila returned to tend to Sork's medical attention and the ship, while Lomn and Tim reluctantly worked together in investigating the Hergilc freighter. In the other crates they found shadow silk, and one contained a very old skeleton. When it was opened Tim felt a wave of darkness. At about this time, they both heard an odd hissing sound. They realized gas was being pumped into the ship; before he could react Tim succumbed and fell unconscious. Lomn, on the other hand, staggered to the door to get to fresh air. He got outside just to be confronted by a huge human who promptly hit him upside the head.
They woke up inside a cell unarmed. Tim used his Jedi powers to speak with the computers and free them. They headed for the nearest exit. It was only once they got to it did they realize that the exit was actually a compression chamber, and that they were underwater. The small chamber began to fill with water. They were full of panic and they didn't know what to do. Lomn then proposed a rash solution: shoot the door with the pulse wave guns. Damage to the door triggered emergency protocol and the door leading back to the base opened, revealing a bunch of pulse wave wielding guards and an extremely pale human female dressed all in black. She had Lomn taken back to the cell, but had Tim taken to her room.
There she tried to seduce Tim both physically and by tempting him to the dark side. Despite her best efforts Tim held to his convictions and would not give in an inch. She then gave Tim a dilemma she thought there was no apt reply to: she would push a button to kill Lomn. Tim could not merely attack her, nor let his companion and fellow being die. He put his lightsaber between her finger and the button. Tim, realizing he could not win, gave himself over to the force. The next several minutes were like a dream to Tim; he did not know what was happening. When he came to, he saw lots of evidence that there was a lightsaber fight in the room, and he saw his captor dead on the floor with a lightsaber wound. Tim's interest in technology lead him to take her lightsaber. Tim then went and got a breath mask, and pumped the base's oxygen supply out. Tim then rushed to the cell that Lomn was being held in, and revived him from unconsciousness with a breath mask. Lomn attempted to alter the life-support controls in his cell to no avail. The two then restored oxygen to the base as they headed towards the docking bay to get out of there. As they were getting ready to open up a crate to investigate its contents, another submarine docked and several guards along with an extremely powerful, evil, mangled Sith Lord, wearing a hood that revealed only red, beady glowing eyes. Tim almost fell over from the wave of darkness emanating from the figure. He screamed, "Run!" Tim and Lomn quickly jumped aboard a submarine, departed, and were pursued. They won the ensuing submarine fight by crippling the opponent ship with the third torpedo. They got back to the star port, loaded the crystals onto Tim's ship and went to meet the Jedi Protectorate Luc Cifer. It was while they went to do this the ship was destroyed along with the crystals in a big explosion.
At the meeting, Luc Cifer congratulated the group for their heroic efforts and thanked them on a job well done, wishing them well. Tim and Lomn felt that there was unfinished business. Both are driven to uncover the truth, and become unlikely allies: Lomn has a starship and Tim is a pilot. They agree to travel to Obelia together.
The group split in order to prepare to travel to Obelia. Tim and Gaila's task will gather supplies, prepare the ship, and ask for information at the local space port bars. Lomn and Sork will try to find more information at the library.
Because of the explosion of his ship, Tim decides to search Lomn's ship before powering up any systems. He finds an even bigger bomb. Luckily he disarms it with moments to spare. At the local bar, The Stinking Fish, Tim does all the talking and discovers from pilots legends of haunted forests - skeletons dancing and such. They also discover that Obelia is an agrarian/forest world. It is also at the end of a hyperspace route, so it has little commercial appeal. Gaila uses memory enhancement to recall that they were being watched, but she does not know by whom. They gather supplies and return to the ship.
At the library, Lomn is following leads that he found in the underwater Sith lair. Namely, he is seeking information on the planet Obelia, which they saw marked on several crates. (They were going to open these crates when they had to abandon them and escape at the last minute.) Lomn discovers a legend of a temple in one of the expansive forests of Obelia; it is rumored to have great power. He was then attacked by an individual. The fight lasted for a little while. However, the stranger is armed and draws a sword. Lomn left his weapons at the front desk. Lomn takes a wrong step and is thrown onto the floor. The attacker raises his sword. In a flash, Sork cuts the blade with his lightsaber. The mysterious attacker was humble before the Jedi and identified himself as Alam Kabeda, keeper of the sacred temple. He was trying to protect it from the wrong people, who have been searching for the temple lately. Alam asks them to go to Obelia and help. Sork and Lomn agree.
Back at the ship, it becomes evident that it is the will of the Force to travel to Obelia. With the force and Alam as their guide, they land on the edge of one the great forest, and start their hike. As they travel, the Jedi can feel the strength of the Force temple surrounding them. The deeper they travel into the forest, the more they feel completely immersed in the Force. That night they are attacked by an illusionary Exur Kun. Tim, caught in the heat of the battle, was tricked by the dark side to use its power. The next day they came to a clearing that contained a sword in a tree stump. Tim and Sork tried to remove it, but were shocked back. However it slid right out in Lomn's hands.
That night they are attacked by another illusionary creature, this time a dragon. They find their way to the temple and are confronted by the same evil visage of the Sith Lord from the underwater complex, along with several troops. Then there is a flash of light. Tim and Lomn find themselves in an illusionary reality (though they do not know this at first) being tested by the force.
Tim had to stop the temple warriors, who had bested and captured the Sith Lord's troops, from executing the Sith's troops. He did so after they shot one, and he learned a lesson of inaction. In Lomn's test he risked his life to save those of children. They then returned to reality.
Apparently, the Sith Lord, Gaila, and Sork all had similar experiences because they were all confused for a second or two. Then the real fight began. The Sith apprentice, Drake, appeared and fought Tim and Gaila. Sork charged Luc Cifer in bravo and pride and was summarily cut down. The Dark Lord then charged Lomn. Acting out of instinct Lomn raised his sword to parry the lightsaber and to his pleasant surprise it worked. Tim and Gaila quickly dispatched of Drake, cutting off his right forearm. Gaila kept Drake pinned while Tim rushed to join Lomn. Just then a Star Dragon, black and exuding evil, burst through the trees on a crash course for Gaila.
Tim turned around; with the aid of the force jumped unnaturally high and far to decapitate the dragon. As Lomn continued to parry the Sith's blows, Alam emerged from the temple holding a sacred statue. This statute is what the Sith came here after; it grants the wielder complete mastery over the force. Being defeated, the Dark Lord disappears into thin air, along with his Apprentice.
Alam thanked the heroes for their help. He told them that some artifacts were taken. He charged them with the will of the Force: to seek out the artifacts. He can only offer one more word that is related to these events in some unknown way: Mercosa.
Before the heroes could ask any question of Alam, a flash of light blinds them for a second, and they are once again aboard the starship. The duo of Tim and Lomn decide to do some research in Obelia. They fly to the biggest city and go to the local library. Lomn discovers that anyone who has ever done any investigative reporting on the Mercosa has ended up dead. He found some tabloid articles that made claims of a secret group known as the Mercosa covertly controls everything in the Tapani Empire. Tim looked in an ancient book and found mentioning of the Mercosa. Tim's research yielded that the Mercosa is a dark, secret political organization that pulls strings and uses "dark magic" to get it's power. He also finds a description of how to find their citadel:
over the jagged mountains
through the snowless valley
over the soft mountain
on the unnamed plateau
Gaila, who had been meditating on the force, grabbed Lomn and told him to follow her. Gaila, following her insight, lead Lomn to the star port to find the missing artifacts. They investigated and located where the artifacts are being held.
At the warehouse, they encountered a female archeologist, Dr. Vastel, who was trying to liberate the same artifacts from her former employer. Lomn, however, does not catch onto the idea that they are after the same goal and instead chooses to argue and fight with Dr Vastel. Throughout the long, sneaky ordeal, Gaila left to get a repulsor lift to move the cargo with the plan Lomn will distract Dr. Vastel long enough for her to get the artifacts. After a very odd and humorous (not to mention slightly embarrassing for Lomn) cat and mouse game, Lomn and Dr. Vastel found themselves at a weapons-point draw, renegotiating with each other.
Meanwhile, Luc recruited Tim to accompany him to settle a dispute between to noble houses. When they got to the plantation, they found it deserted. Tim went in first and fell down a trap door. He found himself facing Drake, who promptly cut Tim's leg off, rendering him unconscious. (In reality, the Sith Lord had set a trap, using hallucinatory gas and holograms, which tricked Tim into becoming unconscious.) The Dark Lord then teleported, along with a bunch of his minions, to the star port. As Lomn and Dr Vastel are having words, one of Lomn's points is interrupted by Dr. Vastel being split into two pieces by the Sith Lord. It looks like the end for Lomn, but Gaila came bursting back into the warehouse piloting a repulsor gun. Lomn ran to meet her. The Sith Lord shoots him in the back with Force Lightning, by the tough Iotran took it and kept running. He jumped aboard as she blasted away at the minions. They were making a clean getaway when the Dark Lord flew towards the repulsor gun, cutting it with his lightsaber and injuring Gaila. He jumped aboard, and Lomn fought him sword vs ligthsaber. He held his own but is then hit with a tranquilizer from behind and slipped into unconsciousness . . .
Grandmaster Carleon appears to Tim in a dream and tells him to keep going on. He must act on instinct and not be held back by worldly limitations but just trust the force. Carleon teaches him to concentrate and heal himself in the vision. Tim then awakes in a little room and thankfully finds his leg still attached. He also notices that he is not alone in the room there is also a cowering cha'wan'he.
Unbeknownst to any of the heroes, Gaila and Lomn are just one cell down. They are frantically trying to find a way out. Lomn comes up with a plan. He rips the old mattress in the cell apart and starts stuffing it down the toilet, causing it to overflow. As he figured, this registers as an environmental control problem and two guards are sent to investigate. Lomn and Gaila made quick work of the two guards.
While this was going on Tim tries to make contact with the alien in the room with him. He senses that the Cha'wan'he was strong in the force. The alien would not speak, so Tim contacts him with Telepathy. With a great unexpectedness, Tim's senses were assaulted. The Force was so great he flew back into the wall. He instantly knows the life of the Cha'wan'he, as it flashes before his eyes.
The alien was a Jedi shadow sent to investigate rumors of the Mercosa. He found their hideout on the Planet Nyssa, but was captured and tortured. He was tortured to the point that he eventually was broken. Stillness settles in the room as the Cha'wan'he was dead. As soon as Tim picks himself backup and recovers, his cell door opens to show both Lomn and Gaila.
The three wander the building in which they were being kept. They find a room that has a gigantic book written in an ancient and dark language that was bound in green skin. Even though the book exuded evil, they took it, figuring it was safer for the Sith not to have it. The three next find the security room and armory. They make quick work of the guards, and Lomn picks up all the weapons that a gun happy Iotran could want. They also discover a map of the building, and see the quickest exit is a nearby vehicle bay, so they head there. As they head to the vehicle bay, a scientist steps out of a room, in which Tim had sensed computers in. Hoping to glean some information, they force the scientist into the room and discover it is some type of twisted laboratory. In it there is a man in a black robe, another chained to a table, some other scientists, and a baby rancor in a cage. The black robed man was uttering words; before the heroes could react, there was a great flash of darkness, exactly like a flash of bright light but the opposite. When they could see again, they saw that the man and rancor had become one twisted, dark amalgam.
Lomn immediately launches two grenades with his new grenade launcher. The grenades did not phase the creature and it kept coming at them. Lomn loaded the biggest explosive he picked up and shot it into the creature's mouth. The heroes jump into the hallway just as the entire laboratory is vaporized.
They run to the cargo bay, and find long-range tread vehicles with "rocket hoppers". There were three so they each got in one. Security arrives in time to lock the bay doors. Lomn, knowing he has little piloting ability, sets his vehicle to ram the bay door and makes a daring escape out the door just in time. Gaila immediately takes off. Tim waits for Lomn, who jumps in and takes over the turret. He fires suppression fire against the security, which is rushing in and the man in black robes who was in the laboratory moments before (he had survived).
Tim looks back at the base they are fleeing and sees Lomn's ship on the landing pad. Next to it, several atmospheric fighters lift off and give pursuit. Tim evades the missiles but Gaila's craft is hit. Lomn manages to cap one fighter. Tim stops to pick up Gaila, who takes over Lomn's firing duties. They head straight back to the structure, in order to board their ship. A missile strikes the turret and knocks Gaila unconscious.
Tim avoids the bombs and shots as best he can, but is outnumbered. The craft is failing and Tim decides to make a daring move: before he is hit again he will activate the Jet hoppers and make a long jump onto the landing pad next to the ship. Tim uses the Force to help guide him in this desperate moment. He crashes into the corner of the building, scraping off the bottom half of the hopper vehicle against the building side. The cab skids to a halt, overshooting the ship, stopping right in front of the stairwell where security guards begin pouring out.
Lomn grabs Gaila and runs for it. Tim distracted the guards with the hopper jets to cover Lomn's getaway. Then Lomn uses cover fire to protect Tim as he ran from the moving hulk. Tim fell and hurt himself jumping out of the crashed vehicle, finally making the narrowest of escapes.
Once they all are in, Tim takes off and fires several well place shots, which caused the base to crumble. As they returned to space, they are greeted by four wings of Axe fighters, dispatched from a giant capital ship. (Tim recognizes it as a poor design, likely to be used by a shady character hoping to secretly buy his own capital ship.) Tim decides to make a crafty move as the Flight computer calculated their location and a hyperspace trajectory. He will follow the curve of the atmosphere around the planet so that the fighters cannot get a clear line of sight to fire. The fighters are faster, however, so Tim will eventually have to engage them. He levels his shields and decides to do so on his own terms: plowing straight into them, hoping to cause disarray. Lasers slice through one fighter and another succumbs to a proton torpedo. The ship then kicks into a plasma slide, burning two more fighters and bouncing off the shields of third, throwing the ship far out of the fray. The axe fighter is not so lucky and soon collides with another of its kind. This daring maneuver buys the heroes enough time to jump to hyperspace.
The flight computer reports that they are headed out of a "dead-end" (only one hyperspace route) sector to the next adjacent system. Taking a second look, Tim realizes they are not heading to Pelagon from Obelia. Instead they are heading to the Caloria system. Apparently, the Sith had used an uncharted hyperspace path.
Meanwhile, Lomn is busily stabilizing Gaila. He then tries to find out about the next system. The ship's database is not forthcoming on information concerning the Caloria system. There is one planet evenly divided between mining and agriculture.
The characters come out of hyperspace and land at the star port in the only true city, and rush Gaila to the hospital. While they were waiting for Gaila to be healed and released, Tim decided to find some weapons and technical parts so that he could design some new machinery for the inevitable fight with the Mercosa. Unfortunately for Tim the clerk at the weapons store he went to is an overly bureaucratic individual, who does not have a bunch of respect for Jedi, only weapons permits. The clerk greatly annoys Tim and the ridiculous situation escalates to the point of being dangerous, when a Zexx stock worker tries to carry out the clerk's citizen arrest. Tim is bailed out by Lomn and the incident only results in minor property damage. The two go back to get Gaila. They must leave.
The doctors insist she stay, offering several discounts to the two to get her stay. Gaila is still in need of being carried, but will recover. They break the planet's atmosphere and Gaila reveals that she had a force vision while unconscious. The vision revealed to her that they did not have much time. By traveling known hyperspace routes it would take well over a week to Nyssus. Seeing no other option, Tim decides to blaze a new hyperspace route through the cluttered space of the Tapani Empire. Grandmaster Carleon teaches him how to use the aid of the Force through the Holocron. Tim meditates on the force and lets it guide him through space. Tim trusts in the force and enters the coordinates. It works and they save nearly six days on their trip.
The planet Nyssa was a self-sufficient colony that the nobility had yet to fully divide up and establish plantations on. Nyssa was a very rocky planet, superb for mining operations, except that it was in a corner of the hyperspace routes and was covered with terrible lightning storms that only a crazy pilot would try to navigate, when there was a window in the weather. There was one such hole in the storm when the heroes arrive. The ship gets damaged in the descent, requiring Tim to leave Lomn at the controls as he goes into the ship bowels to fix it. They do make it through, however.
The ship touches down in a large area of compacted dirt, apparently the star port. This appeared to be one of a few (if not the only) small cities. About 50 people come running to see what ship had come to visit, leaving a fiery trail in the atmosphere (Lomn and Tim still argue over whose fault that was.)
After posing as tourist to make sure the place was safe, the duo revealed their true intentions for coming. The locals were overjoyed that the prophecy regarding Jedi coming to vanquish the "demons" from the "unknown lands" was finally coming true. (The demons they feared were actually the Sith at their secret base.) The locals give them supplies and the only speeder that the village has. Tim, Lomn, and Gaila then set off into the unknown lands. After driving for a little while they find the "glowing forest". The glowing forest is a forest covered in a fungus that glows in the dark.
They cautiously drive through the forest and are attacked by a pack of feline tree dwelling hunters. They out run the creatures but bang the speeder up a bit. The forest gives way to rolling hills. In the distance the characters could see mountains. There is one mountain that stands out and seems to be taller and much more jagged than the others. They had no idea how to get across the jagged mountain. They drive around the base of it and Lomn eventually finds a hidden road. The road goes up and lasts for several hours (the journey to this point had taken about two days). The road emerges in a valley that was covered with geysers and steam vents. The snow from the mountains abruptly stops there. The three start out across the snowless valley. They are attacked by a big serpent that leaps out of the geysers, which is apparently agitated by the repulsor lift. The serpent attacks and destroys the speeder along with most of their supplies. As the sun sets, the three pushed onward by foot.
Tim, Lomn, and Gaila walk across the snowless valley for an entire day. As dusk approaches, they see a break in the ring of mountains that surrounds the valley. The break was a small rolling hill that looks very out of place. Thus, they find the soft mountain. The trio sets camp for the night. During the night they are surprise attacked by ten Brodock beast riders. The heroes fight valiantly, but fight to a stale mate. All of the beast riders are down, most dead. Gaila and Tim are both critically injured. Lomn, too, is about to succumb to injuries. As Lomn passes out, he sees several huge transports and attack vehicles approaching. The vehicles are from house Pelgia and are backed by Jedi knights.
Gaila had been sending their findings to Grandmaster Lance Carleon, who had been traveling to the Tapani Empire shortly after their first capture. He is accompanied by Protectorate Luc Cifer and two other Jedi from house Pelgia. After Gaila, Lomn, and Tim are healed, they join in on a war council meeting to decide the best way to attack the Mercosa citadel. Scouts indicate it has strong walls armed with heavy cannons. The group walks in on Grandmaster Carleon and Protectorate Luc Cifer in an argument as to whether have a subversive assault followed by a main assault (Carleon's plan), or to attack straight away. The General has stepped aside by this point and Luc Cifer gets more and more angry. Suggesting a break, Tim pulls Grandmaster Carleon into the hallway and unveils his suspicions that Luc Cifer is a dark Jedi, evidenced most particularly by the pride his bringing into the debate. Tim is reminded to respect his Jedi elders.
After the break, Lomn uses his military training and tactical mind to devise a plan. He lead a group of the best specialists house Pelgia had to offer across the open field, while Grandmaster Carleon, Tim, and another Jedi consist a second task force. The two task forces are to take out the heavy weapons, then take out the force field gate, and finally signal for the rest of the army to advance. Meanwhile, Luc, Gaila, and the remaining Jedi knight are going to perform a ritual that will cause a big ripple in the force, and mask the presence of Grandmaster Carleon's task force as they sneak in. The two task forces took out the heavy weapons perfectly. They then heard and
