The Sith Fortress
Scenario Supplement for A Dark Fortress

By Morrie Mullins
Living Force Plot Director and Campaign Designer

Morrie Mullins presents the latest in our monthly series of free supplements to the Living Force campaign's newest scenarios. With rumors and fears flying in the Cularin system, the Jedi Academy on Almas has no choice but to investigate the ancient Sith fortress that squats in that world's wasteland. But is the dark structure as abandoned as it has seemed all these years? The Jedi's report on the fortress ties into the May Living Force scenario, A Dark Fortress, which is the third part of the "Almas, Sweet Almas" trilogy.

The Living Force Campaign Guide provides a brief history of the Sith presence in Cularin, which ended over a millennium ago when Darth Rivan died alongside many other Sith at the Battle of Ruusan, the climax of the Sith War. The death of Rivan, though, did not remove his legacy to Almas, a structure that ended in a black dome rising from the surface of the desert wasteland. Now, with the coming of the Believers, information has begun to surface once more about this dark fortress . . .

A Report From Minos Fel'Kona
Jedi Knight, Almas Academy

For as long as there have been Jedi on Almas, we have avoided the wasteland. It is an unclean place, strong in the dark side of the Force, and dangerous. The air is toxic enough to kill a bantha - on good days. Or at least, that was the way our sensors had always read.

Within the last six months, sensor readings have been erratic. Recently, patrols began to investigate the wasteland once more, some under the command of senior officials at the Academy. It was learned that, quite to the contrary of what was previously believed to be the case, the air is almost breathable. Breath masks remain a necessity, but there is none of the skin toxicity that has been remarked upon by expeditions in decades past.

Recent surveys have provided heretofore unknown data. Regarding the dome that covers the protruding tip of Rivan's fortress, it has been dated at 1,132 years, indicating that Rivan must have been quite advanced in years prior to the Battle of Ruusan. This suggests that he did not arise from human stock, as has been speculated in the past, but instead descended from one of the longer-lived species of the galaxy. This makes the assumption that the credit given to Rivan for the construction of the fortress is actually due to the Sith. It remains possible that someone other than Rivan (perhaps his master) was actually responsible for the construction of the edifice, and that Rivan took it as his own when he slew the original creator.

There is no indication that any surface-dwelling creatures live within a thousand kilometers of the fortress, but there are signs of sub-surface life. It has long been remarked that great worms live beneath the sands of Almas, though none have yet been captured for study. Indications are that such worms do not, in fact, exist, although leavings similar to those of krayt dragons have been discovered (in fossil form) scattered across the wasteland. Given the difficulty inherent in distinguishing large, subterranean reptiles from enormous worms when scanning from outside a planet's atmosphere into an area marked by substantial dark-side emanations, the mistake seems reasonable. We still have no visual confirmation of exceedingly large life forms, but something is certainly living beneath the sands of the wasteland.

A handful of expeditions have attempted to circumvent the dome. One such attempt involved the use of small-scale mining equipment to burrow beneath the outermost layer of the structure. After 10 meters, the mining equipment broke through rock and crashed into a cavern below. This cavern provided access to what appears to be an entry hall. The corridors of the hall are polished black marble, and the hall itself slopes down at a 10-degree angle, proceeding deeper into the planet.

The marble is carved in numerous places, and our linguists have yet to decipher all of the script. Some of it is apparently written in the ancient Sith tongue, while other elements of the text continue to elude our comprehension. One element of the carvings that has been deciphered is a series of symbols that line the walls of the hall as it slopes downward.

It appears that Rivan left behind a record of his pedigree. His name is the last in the series of symbols, at the bottom of the hall, where it opens out into a large cavern. Many of the other names - and we assume they are names, since approximately every third set of symbols corresponds to the name of a known Sith lord - have associated dates, though they do not match dates as they are presented on the standard galactic calendar. It is believed that they represent dates of ascension and death for various Sith lords. The first name, at the top of the hall, is that of Naga Sadow, and it is widely believed that this is Darth Rivan's Sith lineage, which he traced back several thousand years.

Deeper explorations of the fortress have as yet been unsuccessful. The influence of the dark side in this place is great, and there is a constant tugging at the mind of any Force-sensitive individual, a temptation, a promise of power and glory. As such, no Jedi is allowed to remain in the fortress for more than 90 minutes, and the guards outside the fortress are rotated every four hours. All are provided with substance 90A in order to [this portion of document deleted for security purposes]

The strength of the Force effects in place at the fortress indicates that there may be one or more active devices (or artifacts) in the bowels of the structure. Until such time as we feel that deeper explorations provide no undue threat to the safety of the Jedi involved, however, we cannot recommend such explorations. There is much to be studied closer to the surface, and with patience, we will learn what must be learned.