The Horde Invasion

A mysterious horde from beyond the known Galactic Rim has been attacking the outer colonies. They swoop in without warning, plunder it and take slaves, then leave. Then, for the next few weeks, the planet is mysteriously drained of all life. The air becomes toxic, the soil and water poisoned, and thin black beings called "Nightmares" begin to attack the survivors, seemingingly out of nowhere. The Republic Fleet has already responded and are searching in vain for the Horde, which is odd considering the reported size of the Horde armada.

The PC's are a group of Jedi sent from the Republic to investigate this matter and determine the location and intentions of the Horde. They consist of a young Human Jedi named Alexar, an Elani Jedi named Ahram, a Gungan (yes, Gungan) Jedi named Zsa Zsa Binks. They have passage on an inconspicuous light cargo freighter owned by the Corellian captain Dag Braxal and his batlike Chadra-fan copilot Quarllen.

The planet Kael has recently lost all contact, it is feared that they are the latest target of the Horde. The team is sent there to investigate. On the way out, they stopped to refuel and resupply at some midway planet where Quarllen managed to win a hefty sum of Dactaris gambling. This earned the ire of local crime lord and pirate Captain Belial who paid the team a visit with some of his men and his giant war-droid, Castrati, in an attempt to recoup some of his losses. With some panicked haste, the team managed to leave the spaceport a little ahead of schedule.

Kael was devastated. It's air was fouled and it's soil poisoned, the colony was destroyed. They landed and found some survivors hiding in the rocks. While removing the survivors to the ship, they discovered several tall, thin, black creatures with long spindly arms and legs ending in evil looking claws, and a smaller set of arms emerging from the mid-section. Their bodies were jet-black and lacked surface or texture. Their eyes were yellow glowing orbs, the insides of their jagged mouths was a featureless yellow glow. The creatures, Nightmares, attacked, covering the gap from the ship to the team in great bounds. After a brief battle, Quarllen, the bat-boy, was incapacitated. The Nightmares, upon dying, left no blood, and their severed limbs and greasy dead bodies simply dwindled to nothing, leaving no trace.

The team interviewed the survivors and learned that the Horde is led by a man named Kron. Each Horde warrior flies an extremely fast and durable starfighter, and there are thousands of them. To be Continued!.

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The secret stuff they don't know yet is that the Horde have been terrorizing the unexplored sectors for years since Kron took over. Kron has the aid of an evil Sith Witch named Paegana, who can shroud the entire armada. In exchange for helping them conquer and plunder worlds, Paegana is allowed to drain the world of life force for several weeks after the invasion. So the Horde appear out of nowhere, attack and plunder a new planet, then relax for a few weeks under Paegana's Shroud while she drains the world below. The Republic Fleet responds to the crisis, finds nothing but devastation, tries to anticipate the Horde's next move, then go to the next likely target. Wherever they go, the Horde don't. They simply choose another target. In this way, they seem to stay one step ahead of the Fleet.

However, the suprise attacks are just a part of Kron's plan, they are meant to psyche out his opponents and strike fear into them. His next move is to defeat the Republic Fleet in battle. To this end, he will entertain an "audience" with the Jedi looking for him, intentionally let slip his next target, let the Jedi go in an escape so they can warn the fleet, then lure the fleet into his trap. Once the fleet is defeated, he can demand surrender of subsequent colonies without a fight.