Masters in Exile is an ongoing series of articles where I will present fully fleshed out characters to fill the roll of master for the Jedi in your party. These profiles will include plot hooks, game stats, optional house rules, personality traits, sample quotes, and character development paths. It is my hope that these characters will serve as set pieces that a GM can dropping into their game, fully-formed and ready for play.
In Part I, we looked at the background, stats, and character development of one possible master for your party’s Jedi. In this installment of Masters in Exile, we will discuss plot hooks for his homeworld, Baltimn, and his dueling academy, The School of Hidden Wisdom.
The School of Hidden Wisdom
History: When Ephaan Kenzon left the Jedi Order he returned to his homeworld, Baltimn, on the borders of Wild Space. One of his few memories of his homeworld was a foreboding tower that was largely ignored or avoided by the local farmers of the far-flung agriworld. Upon his arrival, he felt drawn to the tower and would go on to explore, and later restore, the ancient structure.
The backwater planet occasionally suffered raids by pirates looking to resupply their vessels, hide from justice, or just cause trouble and Ephaan felt it was his duty to instruct the locals in the basics of self-defense. After several years, several of his more gifted students began to filter out into the galaxy and make names for themselves and soon Kenzon was getting students from all over the galaxy.
After the rise of the Empire, propaganda and and changes in galactic mindset lead to the slow decline of the galaxies many dueling academies. The practice was seen as a indulgence of the bloated Republic – a place for the wealthy to indulge themselves and play hero. By the Battle of Yavin, all had closed their doors or been shut down except Kenzon’s.
The School: The tower that has become the School of Hidden Wisdom is an ancient edifice of solid stone, seemingly carved from a single, massive pillar. The top terminates in a massive translucent quartz dome and several pointed spires. It is built for defense, having no ground floor entrance, and accessible only by a turbolift to a second story balcony. The interior has several spartan quarters for students as well as a large library, training and exercise rooms, and a grand audience chamber open to the quartz dome above.
Possible Secrets and Plot Hooks:
- The school was built upon an ancient tunnel complex to safeguard an untapped source of Kyber Crystals millennia ago, but was forgotten by whoever built it.
- The structure is an edifice raised by the Ratakan Infinite Empire and is suffused with Dark Side energy, possibly even being a dormant Nexus…serving as a test for aspiring Jedi or, if reactivated, as a beacon to the servants of the Emperor.
- The structure is the tomb, or prison, for an ancient Dark Side entity – tempting the Force-sensitive students of the school or even attacking them in their dreams, leading to entire adventures within the minds of the PCs.
Baltimn
Astronavigation Data: Baltimn System, Chorlian sector, Outer Rim Territories
Orbital Metrics: 198 days per year / 34 hours per day
Government: represetitive council
Population: 58 million (67% human, 33% other)
Languages: Basic, Bocce
Terrain: plains, forest, ocean
Major Cities: Murmamn City, Port Dosha
Areas of Interest: School of Hidden Wisdom, Mount Teranies, numerous unexplored ruins
Major Exports: foodstuffs
Major Imports: high technology, medicine
Trade Routes: Shaltin Tunnels, Listehol Run
Special Conditions: none
Background: Baltimn is a largely untouched world on the edge of known space. The world is notable for its tilted axis of rotation, making it an ideal agriworld. For one quarter of the year, the northern hemisphere receives 28 hours of sunlight per day, experiencing only 6 hours of “twilight” each night. While the opposite is true for the southern hemisphere the rest of the year, leading to incredible growing seasons. Though the long nights and winters on the opposing half of the year are difficult, the planet’s proximity to its star keep them from being lethal.
Baltimn has been settled an unknown number of times over the millennia, but the current colonists have a thriving, if still burgeoning, agricultural industry. The population is very dispersed, and large congregations generally only occur during the end of growing seasons when the farmers are delivering their harvests to the distributers and spaceports of Murmamn City and Port Dosha. These occasions are always times of great festivity and pageantry.
Possible Events and Plot Hooks:
- Baltimn is very close in proximity to Zygerria, and the undefended colony is a ripe target for a massive slaver raid. Alternately, the slavers may try to extort the locals into providing foodstuffs to feed their massive slave camps.
- Baltimn is also near the mysterious world known as Malachor – the site of an ancient battle between the Jedi and Sith, as well as being home to at least one Sith Temple. This dark world would be the perfect place to send Jedi hopefuls to complete their trials, facing down the maddened spirits of both Jedi and Sith long dead.
- Pirate raids have been a constant problem for the world since before the clone wars. The raids are usually minor, basically stealing foodstuffs for resupply while on the run or using the essentially lawless world as a layover to blow off steam and flex their muscles. Most of the locals have grown accustomed to this annoyance and largely ignore it, but Ephaan may use it as an opportunity to test the PCs’ characters – sending them into town for supplies, knowing a particularly rowdy and obnoxious crew of pirates are there. Observing from a distance, Ephaan will see how the Jedi hopefuls handle themselves and use it as a teaching opportunity to rein in hot-headed PCs who seek a fight, refuse to train PCs who slaughter the pirates, or chastise PCs who ignore the situation. Whatever course of action they take will affect the townspeople, and Kenzon is sure to make sure PCs learn that their actions have consequences.
Alternate Master Benefit (House Rules)
If you read the last article, you will have noticed that Ephaan Kenzon is heavily focused on combat skills over Force abilities. He never completed his training and always preferred studying the lightsaber over the deeper mysteries of the Force. As a possible alternative to giving PCs the standard 5 point discount on basic Force powers, Ephaan Kenzon could allow them to purchase their one lightsaber specialization as a universal specialization (essentially saving them 10 points). This is particularly good for players coming from EotE and AoE careers, as they will already have already cross-specialized once to gain Force Rating 1. If you are limiting your characters to EotE or AoE books, consider allowing training at the School of Hidden Wisdom to allow them to buy ranks of the Lightsaber skill as a career skill.
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