Choose My Adventure: Gaining favor with Darth Jadus
While the holidays have put a bit of a halt to most of my playing time in Star Wars: The Old Republic this week, I did manage to achieve level 16 on my Imperial Agent. He's now living it up on Dromund Kaas, getting ready to storm a castle. But some conflicting info from within the Empire's leadership has our pal Xel'es looking to possibly take orders from a new commander.
After this week's in-character story behind the cut, you can vote to choose my next move with Xel'es. Last week, you chose for him to become an Operative with Slicing, Underworld Trading, and Cybertech as his crew skills. I decided to make this week's poll something that wouldn't stop me from playing before the poll results came in, which killed a lot of potential playing time last week.
Ahh, Dromund Kaas. As many times as I've been to this dank jungle planet, I don't think I've ever seen daylight. Or had dry feet. The rain always finds a way to seep right inside my boots, which makes for some unpleasant missions.
After dodging some of the meanest looking jungle beasts I've ever seen, I finally arrived at Kaas City -- streamlined, sterile, and somehow, still full of filth. I don't trust the bureaucratic atmosphere here, but I do respect the power. And the constant thunder adds a certain degree of evil that I do so enjoy. Of course, Kaliyo can't help but comment on her desire to burn the whole place down, but that's just part of her charm.
I arrived in Keeper's control room to find him chatting with Darth Jadus. The Darth seemed pleased with me, but his arrogance and disrespectful treatment of Keeper left a bad taste in my mouth. He told me that he appreciated my fine work thus far and asked that I continue working for him. I wasn't aware that he was the one I was specifically working for, but after he left, Keeper made it known that I may regret the favor of the Darth.
After grabbing some supplies, I headed into Keeper's office for my next mission debriefing. I'm to travel to the site of an unfinished colossus and break up a little party that some rebellious slaves are having. Turns out a Sith lord with a bit of a complex was building a giant statue to honor himself, but the slave workers weren't as enthused about his greatness. They confiscated some trooper weapons and are now holding the jungle hostage.
I was informed that I'll need the help of a few operatives on this one. Of course, Kaliyo is my first choice at this point, but I was also introduced to a woman by the name of Watcher Two. Kaliyo probably won't be inviting her to any parties any time soon, but I like her so far. She's direct and to the point and has already scolded me for a harmless little flirt. Sounds like a challenge to me, and I'm quite flattered that the ladies are fighting over me already.
Watcher Three is an entirely different story. The man is skittish and nervous. He says it's a simple case of not being a people person, but I think it's more than that. Another one I'll be keeping my eye on.
At the slave camp, I met with Lord Drowl. He seems to be a man corrupt with power, but that's none of my business. He promised to pay me well for the elimination of those slave rebels through the use of a new Quell toxin that he created. But when I went to gather the toxin from a supply sergeant named Slarin, the poor sap thought I looked like someone who cared about his own personal feelings toward the lord. He claims that Lord Drowl is using this poison on the slaves for his own cruel enjoyment, but my concern here is that Sergeant Slarin is being insubordinate. I really have nothing against insurgency as a concept, but not while wearing an Imperial uniform. The sergeant tried to give me his own poison that will kill the slaves more quickly and painlessly, but I refused. Those slaves need to pay, and I am under direct orders from Lord Drowl, not some supply sergeant in a leaky field tent.
Once I arrived at the colossus construction site, I chatted with Watcher Two via holonet regarding a specific alien slave named Jurithus who stole coded messages. I'm to capture a slave leader and interrogate him regarding Jurithus' whereabouts.
The serum ended up working better than I imagined. The slave leader told me everything about Jurithus and how he died in battle at the foot of the colossus statue. After I recovered the data disk from the alien slave's body, Keeper informed me that I'm to suspend all field activity and report to Darth Jadus immediately. Oh, how I'm looking forward to being scrutinized by the Dark Council. Keeper seems to think this is good for me, though. Not that I trust the man. Well, either of them, frankly.
Oddly enough, I was not scrutinized by the darth. While meeting with the high Sith in his chambers, I was informed that I was chosen for a new assignment based on my disconnection with the higher-ups. Darth Jadus seems to believe that there's some sort of conspiracy in the top ranks, so he's calling on me to purge the dissidents.
In a strange turn of events, he put me on the spot my asking me to pledge my allegiance and kneel to him right then and there. I only had a moment to mull it over, but there's something about this darth. Yes, I know that suddenly obeying Darth Jadus at this point goes against all common sense, but he exudes power, and I respect that. I know I said that I trust no one, but having zero trust will get me nowhere. It's now a matter of trusting my instinct, and my instinct tells me that following Darth Jadus' orders will get me much further in this world than trusting an Imperial intelligence commander.
Later on, Watcher Two mentioned that she wanted to meet with me in Kaas City's Nexus Room Cantina, and I'm sure you can imagine what type of conclusions my mind jumped to from there, but it turns out she just wanted to talk via holocommunicator. She briefed me on a scientist named Theovor Mindak, who may be our key to the violent dissident movement on Dromund Kaas that Darth Jadus spoke of. The wealthy genius and inventor is known to rub elbows with the rebels, and he currently oversees the Sith Lord Grathan's estate. It may be possible to get to the madman through his daughter, Samara, who is not exactly fond of her old pop. It seems to be a classic case of a spoiled brat biting the hand that feeds her.
Samara was only a few rooms back in the cantina's private quarters, and she certainly seemed to be the type who likes to have a good time. It only took me a moment to charm her onto my side -- for my own benefit, of course. I wasn't sure if this lost little girl would fall for my obvious flirts, but it was almost too easy. Well, easy until she suddenly became suspicious, accusing me of being a military man using her to get to her father.
I figured that she may have been trying to play me as well, but once she started trying to call the shots and demanding that I steal her father's money for her gain, I had to turn the tables quickly and show her that fun time was over. A rifle butt to the side of her head proved to loosen her game a bit and she broke down into hysterics. She told me where her father's workshop was and the key codes I needed to infiltrate the security system. Once I had that information, she was worthless to me, so I put her down right then and there. Her friend scurried away, but I can always kill him later.
I decided to spend another night in Kaas City while preparing for the invasion on Lord Grathan's Estate. Kaliyo, being Kaliyo, couldn't stay still for two seconds, so she ran off to "run some errands." Turns out she has a knack for slicing into certain computers on the side for some extra credits. She also collects spare droid parts when the chance presents itself, so I had the opportunity to check out her growing collection.
Completely intrigued by this double life of hers, I was pleased when she offered to teach me a few things about the trade myself. She also agreed to take me on some underworld trading runs that traditionally fill her time between assassinating ambassadors and being a sarcastic Hutt-spawn. Well, that "one extra night" in Kaas City turned into four extra nights as we hit the underground dealing in everything from rare, endangered snow falcons to trafficking stolen artwork.
The extra income helped us afford enough supplies and upgrades to give us quite an advantage on our Grathan mission. We'll be heading to the estate at first light... or the closest thing to first light as you can get on Dromund Kaas. In the meantime, a few more poaching runs won't hurt anything.
It's time to decide! Which concentration should I focus on for my skill tree? Be sure to get those votes in by 12:01 a.m. EST on Friday, December 28th.%Poll-79736%
It's Shawn's turn back in the driver's seat of Choose My Adventure with you as the co-pilot. It's going to be a rough ride, so put on your seat belt! If you want to read a full six weeks of farcical puns about cars and farming, be sure to tune in every Wednesday as the adventure continues to unfold.
