Dark On Dark
Scenario Supplement for Philosophy

By Morrie Mullins
Living Force Plot Director and Campaign Designer

Living Force Plot Director and Campaign Designer Morrie Mullins presents the latest in our monthly series of supplements to the campaign's newest scenarios. This time, we pay another visit to Old Ezil, who always has something to say about what's going on in Cularin. Ezil dishes dirt on the war between Trammel and Nirama and on who might want to bring the alien crime lord down. This supplement ties into the July Living Force scenario, Philosophy, the second part of the "Below the Belt" trilogy.

You again, eh? You keep comin' in here, and I may start thinking you like my company. And let me tell you something, youngster, there ain't been no one who liked my company since before your grandfather's daddy got hair on his chin. Old Ezil knows better than to think you like to be around him, so I got to ask myself - why you keep coming back?

You see, I got my suspicions about you. You and your kind, always running around making nice-nice with each other, acting all heroic-like. You most likely want to get some information out of Old Ezil, and if that's what you want, well, this time you'll get it for free. But from here on out, you're gonna be paying. Today, it just happens I'm in a talky mood, so you go buy me a drink and we'll see what I can tell you.

You probably wonder what I've been seein' around the system. Cularin, she's got some problems right now. I ain't gonna lie to ya. The folks who run things on the dark side of the system - that's the side that don't care about the law - are in kind of an uproar. After that whole mess with the Cell a while back, they all reckoned they had to make some changes, Nirama in particular.

Looks from the things I've seen on the vid that he's trying to make changes, but he's looking in the wrong places. What he needs is changes in his people. He's got more problem children in that outfit than a k'kayeh dragon has teeth - and son, I got to tell you, that's a lot. Word is, the Cell was just part of his problem, and he may have only scratched the surface. The stuff he said lately, that just tells me that he's lookin' outside his people for problems and playing the politician.

I tell you what, he's got a good head for business, but when it comes right down to it, the internal politics are what's gonna kill the man. I mean, you think he's forgotten that he's the one what took down Riboga? Him, a lowly accountant, knocked a Hutt off his pedestal.

Gotta respect that. But if he's forgot that the biggest threats are the ones you can already see, well, maybe I've given him more respect than he deserves.

Somehow, I don't think he has.

I mean, it's not like Trammel's given him a lot to worry about. A few little scuffles here and there, but everyone kinda thinks Trammel is rethinking his position. The man's not a tactical moron. He's gotta know that Nirama's dug in real good in the asteroids, and going in and attacking would be dumber than just about anything he could do. If I was him - and I'm not, 'cause I don't have a death wish - I'd sit tight until something made Nirama come out, and then, if I was still feelin' uppity, I'd go for the kill. Trammel's just as nasty a type as any out there, so I don't doubt that's kinda what he's plannin' to do. But as long as Nirama stays off in the asteroids, he's got nothin' to worry about from Trammel.

The Cell was a bunch of nerf-herders. Everyone who heard about 'em knew it. Not a one of them had the brains to even come up with that complicated a plan, much less almost pull it off. Rumor has it there was someone else in charge of them, someone who was strong in the Force. Old Ezil says, that wouldn't surprise him one blippin' bit. You look at the folks who can overthrow Nirama, and it's gonna take way more than goons with blasters and thermal detonators and a handful of crusty old ships. You gotta find someone who can muck with the minds of the people around him, get rid of that nasty loyalty thing they've got to him.

Some of that, I hear, they had to do surgery to accomplish. You may have heard of that Twi'lek that worked for Nirama - Jobril or some such. Been with Nirama for years. I can't even tell you how many. Word on the street is, long time ago, Jobril said to Nirama, "I want some surgery. Put a chip in my brain so you can control me, so's you won't never have to worry about me betraying you." So Nirama says, "Sure, no problem." Every boss wants that kind of assurance, right?

Thing is, someone took Jobril a while back and yanked that little chip out of his brain, and that made it so that he could be turned against Nirama. So the one guy that Nirama thought he could always trust, because the guy asked from the beginning to have everything possible done to make himself trustworthy, ended up turned.

That takes someone with technical skills, but it takes more. See, someone with Jobril's level of loyalty doesn't change his mind about his allegiances just because he got his chip took out. He asked for the chip, he wanted to be loyal, so it was gonna take a lot of work to get him to betray Nirama. A lot of work, or a little Force.

Now, that's just Old Ezil's opinion, and he's been wrong before. Not like Jobril's around any more to tell us different, right? But we're talkin' about Cularin. Just last week, I ran into a guy who was selling these little balls of fur that looked like baby rats, and he says to me, "You want one of these therbligs? They're sensitive to the Force!"

Force-sensitive baby rats? I figure, why not - everything else is, in Cularin. You can bet that means the folks who are out to get Nirama, most of all.