Public Something Wicked This Way Flies: Ghost Stories from the Outer Rim Space Mythos

[Inhye Oh-chai]

The Tosharan sun was just about to finally fall entirely underneath the horizon line, plunging the savannah into the near darkness of another cold autumn night. Nights in the savannah were rarely entirely dark, not even this far out from the light pollution of the settlements. In addition to bioluminescent, nocturnal fauna like ronga bugs and aponos, frequent outcroppings of amberine—a bright, warm orange glass-like mineral unique to the League's capital moon—caught the twinkles of distant stars when the sky was clear and reflected them as faint stipples of light on the landscape.

But the reflections were much more intense in the canyon outpost Inhye had set up in. This old smuggler's hideout, like a number of them that were scattered over Toshara, was first and foremost a cave, though it had been carved out further by when someone decided that it was a good place to store illicit goods. The amberine ringing the walls glowed with the dancing flames of the fire Inhye had started in the middle of the cave. Periodic cracking of steam and sap contained in the wood being burnt was, for now, one of the only sounds that broke the night's silence. Other sounds were the distant chirped barks of varaki and rustles of the flyer wings.

The voice of the Atrisian joined in.

"Who's first?" asked the homesteader, glancing around the fire at the faces of those who had responded to her invitation here by gathering. It was a night for spooky storytelling around a campfire.

"I want to be scared to fly home," she added with a sly smile. Specifically, she was hoping to hear entertaining and unsettling tales of open space from the Outer Rim territories, one of the remaining exploration frontiers in the galaxy. With so much dark and vacuous unknown, there were bound to be many unexplained experiences that almost any spacegoer had to tell.

OPEN to all,
particularly spacers and storytellers​

 

[Jared Starchaser]

It was as good a place as any, wasn’t it? Toshara. A place to set up shop for continued leaping around the Outer Rim. He’d been out this way a while before. The Outer Planets Alliance and Outer Rim Coalition was part of his upbringing, working there with his father as a Judge and Warden of sorts. He’d remained in the area while Kaia flitted around with her space exploration. He loved that too, but there was something rewarding in helping the helpless, and monster hunting.

Plus it felt more Jedi than what the Core Jedi were doing. Sitting around, and stepping into someone else’s business who probably didn’t ask for it. And Toshara was away from all that. It reminded him of his mother’s homeworld of Miral. Another dry world. As a Judge, he’d seen his fair share of weirdness out in the galaxy, and he wanted to get a real good taste for the world and the people who were going to be living out here now.

His ship, the Crosscurrent was inside the planet’s range and now he was out here with his swoop. A smuggler’s den. And a place to drink.

A grin as the Atrisian spoke, he shrugged. “I mean, I don’t know if I should lead. Having the Force and the Outer Rim becomes a bit of a beacon for the spooky.”

 

[Pal Veda]

Toshara
Tags: Inhye Oh-chai Jared Starchaser

The warmth of the crackling fire was welcome as the sun sank below the horizon. Although his ORO Spacer Jacket was pretty cozy. Pal kicked back in the small folding chair and took a sip of Corellian whiskey from his mug, leaving the bottle out in the open in case anyone else wanted to partake. He was in a sharing mood tonight. And hopefully others were, as well. He looked forward to the tall tales of his colleagues, especially of the supernatural.

“You’re a Starchaser,” the Captain prodded, “Let’s hear what you’ve got! Or do we need to call dear ole dad down here to entertain us?” He grinned, meaning it more as a poke than an insult. Of course Coren Starchaser was legendary in these parts, but his son wasn’t so bad himself. Although he did prefer Kaia to Jared, absolutely nothing to do with the fact that she was of the fairer sex.

Pal took another sip, welcoming the smooth liquor’s warming embrace throughout his body. This stash was exceptionally good, skimmed off of a shipment he’d recently delivered for his business partner on Nar Shaddaa. He then held his mug forward, releasing his index finger to point at the mostly full bottle on the ground. “Have a little liquid courage if it‘ll help get the story goin’.”

 

[Kahne Porte]

"Oh hush now...." The voice of Kahne Porte could be heard, as he glanced back to his droid, Gala. "I feel like you don't ever want to go on adventures anymore." He noticed as the years went by his Astro droid was getting more and more worried about his well being. Kahne knew it was the fact that he was not a young man anymore, a small shade of gray showed on his beard and hair. The Jedi Master knew it was the way of life, time went by. It was something that you couldn't defeat. Kahne lived his life as best as he could and as well as he could.

He could see the campfire up ahead, and the space around him was soon filled with the small beeps and whistles from Gala. "If you are so concerned then wait on the ship. They are just stories my friend." The Jedi Master laughed a bit, probably the first good laugh he had in a while at the sound of the worried noises coming from the droid.

He finally made it to the camp fired, given a small introduction before sitting down. There was one here that he knew by reputation and the other two he had never met before.

"Greetings my friends. My name is Kahne Porte. I hope you don't mind me dropping in on this grand occasion." He glanced back as Gala seemed to be returning to the ship. Kahne shrugged his shoulders and took a seat.

"I hope I didn't miss anything important."

Inhye Oh-chai Jared Starchaser Pal Veda