As it’s getting less and less likely that I’m going to get around to writing the story up the way I’d like to see it, I might as well tell you what actually happened.
Three big things happened in Chapter 3 that brought about the downfall:
#1- Jaren confessed, believing something Yet Yash had said indicated that the Man in Black had been discussing their deal and exposing Jaren to danger. Jaren considered it a deal-breaker.
#2- They went back to Coruscant. The whole point of the campaign was the journey to get Pock back to Coruscant, out of the intergalactic war. Once on Coruscant, he’d be kept in the safety of the Council. There would be no Pock for another adventure.
#3- When told of what Jaren had been doing, Plo Koon kicked him out of the group. I just couldn’t think of any reason for them to keep Jaren on-hand. With a wince in my heart, Plo Koon kicked Jaren out of the temple.
SO- When I started up Session 4 without Jaren and having Pock still come along on a mission to bring the Nessaecide to Manaan (total cheese, going against my earlier edict of HE MUST NOT BE PUT AT RISK), the credibility was teetering horribly. I didn’t know how to balance this stuff, and it showed. Energy was uncertain, people couldn’t really get focused, I wasn’t sure how things would go.
Eventually, things kinda shaped up, and Mikau came up against Ekra Tev. Mikau’s player had been complaining that I didn’t concentrate on him enough and give him enough screen time, so I made Ekra to be his old nemesis. When Ekra confronted the group, he spoke to Mikau, and Mikau’s player shrugged and passed the diplomacy off to someone else. Guh!
Later, there’s a big battle going on. Mikau versus Ekra Tev as aquatic battle rages on Manaan. Mikau says something like “We needn’t fight, there’s no reason we can’t bring about change through legal action!” She rolls a freakin’ 36 for a diplomacy check. It’s so good that I say yeah, Ekra Tev’s mind is changed. He lowered his sword and nodded. That’s when Pock’s initiative came up. “I STAB HIM IN THE BACK WITH MY LIGHTSABER!!!”
At that point we felt secure in just folding the game up.