How my Jedi lost his connection to The Force

[Maximilian Bernas]

Warning! This is a sad story for me, and may give some enterprising GMs fodder for Jedi they feel are too powerful.

It's a few years after the fall of the Second arisen Emperor. My Jedi had taken a leave of absence from Yavin 4 (he was the Battle Master and Lightsaber teacher [yes, even though Luke is better]) to find my friends who, rumor had it, were captured by a Sith aprentice I had fought and (supposedly) killed 2 years after Endor.

After my small band of Spec. Force troops located and freed my friends, we found ourselves in the midst of a trap (naturally). We fought well and killed most of the shadowtroopers and we destroyed all of the battle-droids, but the few evil Force users were still pinning my group down.

I'll type in the notes from here:

The Dark Jedi faced the us in the ravine, shouting, "Fools! Your puny skills are no match for the Dark Side!" One of my Specs, Chopper, got too close to the entrance and was set upon by Telekinetic Kill. My student Niel fired a grenade at the Sith and the explosion broke his concentration.

A hum and then a whoosh-whoosh was heard through the smoke, and a bright blue lightsaber whirled through the entryway and struck Niel on the right side of his blast-helmet. Burning flesh and charred transparisteel littered the side of the depression and Niel crumpled to the floor.

A dark and slender figure stepped through the smoke and called his lightsaber to him. It was Darth Bellorum. He was still alive. Or at least, partially. He had a metallic covering over much of his face (except his eyes), and there were all manner of inorganic components tubing in and out of his chest, abdomen, and left shoulder.

TAM (Threatening Armored Man- called so for his collection of stormtrooper armor), Singe, and Kriiesh tossed the directional grenades at the base of the entryway, and knocked most of the shadowtroopers off their feet. I blocked Bellorum from pursuing the others, and Jad'aar, Baron Simon, Melanie, Trevor and Maisie turned and formed a horseshoe shaped defensive position at the base of the ravine to fight off the flanking attack. TAM and the others should be able to make it to the ship, and their return would give us the upper hand. We were just going to have to fight it out.

Baron Simon looked somewhat puzzled by the recent turn of events and said to Lord Trevor, "my good man, do you call this a rescue?"

"Your Excellency," Trevor replied, "this is what one might call a, transition to rescue."

I ignited my saber, it's deep crimson blade glowing faintly in the half light of the cavernous entryway. Bellorum moved his blade to attack, and blue-red flashes cast strange shadows about the stone.

The black-clad Force-users clashed time and again, casting spectres of light and dark to play across their dusty armor.

Bellorum pulled a light-dagger from his left sleeve and jabbed it quickly into my belly. My armor took some of the brunt, but the wound hurt greatly. I calmed my nerves and felt a healing vapor to waft about my abdomen. Bellorum swung both long and short blades at me, and I promptly took my own second blade and sliced the light-dagger neatly in half.

"Yield or greet The Force, Sith spawn..." I panted. I favored my left side a bit as I tried to allow the time for the healing to work.

Bellorum leapt in and caught his blade deeply in my scissors-block, while I disengaged my second blade and scored him across his breastplate, severing 2 tubes in the process. Dully-gleaming armor and pale smoking flesh can be seen from underneath the carapace, and Bellorum snarls and attacks again. A bolt of pure hatred shot from his left hand to my right shoulder, and the bolt knocked the saber out of my hand and left my right shoulder numb.

I snaked my blade under his guard and separated his right arm at the shoulder from his body with a great display of sparks and a yelp of pain from Bellorum.

He sank to his knees, staring at me with uncontrollable hatred and not a small amount of disbelief.

I can hear blaster fire from behind me and I know that the others have the situation well in hand, but that small distraction gave Bellorum the chance he needed.

<Editor's note- For those who know of the fall and redemption of Ulic Quel-Droma, then you know that Nomi Sunrider stripped him of all connections to The Force. Darth Bellorum had been saving a corrupted version of the power for just this occasion, which he augmented with the Sith power "Force Scream.">

The Sith took a deep breath and screamed "b@st@rd*!" and reached for something at his chest. I struck him down with the saber at the exact same moment that a sickly blue-green wave of energy erupted from Bellorum's chest. I was at ground zero, and was knocked 30 feet through the air to land on an unsuspecting shadowtrooper.

The rest I learned after the fact:

Another 3 Specs were killed during the extraction, Melanie was sniped in the chest and fell mortally wounded (though she would recover), but the only other Jedi, Jad'aar, said he felt nothing when reaching out to me. I appeared barely alive, so they loaded me onto TAMs ship, and away we sped; easily the most botched rescue attempt in the history of the galaxy.

When I woke, I felt empty. Cold. Dead. But I wasn't dead. But every ounce of Force ability had been stripped from me and worse, I was blind to all manifestations of the Force.

But, all affects of the Force were also dead to me. I have no Force points, and I can only use character points to raise attributes, not for any rolls.

On the negative side, this appears permanent. Even Master Skywalker's holocron seems unable to decipher the mystery of just what caused my rending from The Force.

On the positive side, the Force no longer affects me directly. Force Lightning courses around me as if I were not there. It's almost as if I was my own ysalamiri or something. Lightsabers still cut me, but telekinetic projectiles just fall once getting within a few inches of me (but they still retain most of their energy). And Jedi cannot sense me. At all. I don't exist to The Force anymore.

That also means no Dark Side Points. But I have yet to get into that aspect of things. Bernas had been in a state of near suicidal depression for about 2 years after the rending. But he reentered the New Republic Army and at the rank of Colonel, spends as much time doing the most dangerous assignments as possible. Especially if a Dark Jedi is involved.

I figured something has to get him out of his funk, and it was right there... destroy all dark jedi.

Like I said, sad story...
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"Let your anger be like a monkey in a pinata"
- Master Tang

[Crell Damar]

Any idea what that blast was? a suicide bomb or something?
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"For over a thousand generations, the Jedi Knights were the guardians of peace and justice in the Old Republic. Before the dark times... before the Empire. "

Obi-Wan Kenobi

[Son of Fire]

Neat, I like it.
I think it would be really interesting to find out if and how he would get his connection to the Force back.
After all, nothing is impossible…it is only a matter of degrees of improbable.
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"My schooling not only failed to teach me what it professed to be teaching, but prevented me from being educated to an extent which infuriates me when I think of all I might have learned at home by myself." - George Bernard Shaw

[Crell Damar]

Maybe something to do with the Valley of the Jedi or something like that?
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"For over a thousand generations, the Jedi Knights were the guardians of peace and justice in the Old Republic. Before the dark times... before the Empire. "

Obi-Wan Kenobi

[Son of Fire]

That could work…or perhaps the counter to that Force power.
Like a “long lost” Force power or something?
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"My schooling not only failed to teach me what it professed to be teaching, but prevented me from being educated to an extent which infuriates me when I think of all I might have learned at home by myself." - George Bernard Shaw

[Volar the Healer]

8) Maximilian Bernas, that was a great story! I really enjoyed it. Thanks for sharing it.
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Know Jesus, Know Peace.
No Jesus, No Peace

[Esoomian]

An excellent tale

It's almost like the character has become a droid or a Vong (although I'm not sure that either of them can disrupt force lightening)

Although perhaps a better discription is that the character is surrounded by/is a null field within the force

Perhaps if you are now immune to the dark side you should begin studying and trying to use the dark side...

If you can't use the dark side then you'll be a safe 'database' of darkside knowledge and possibly still be useful within the jedi academy

and if it turns out you can use the dark side then you've got the force back and it's just a simple matter of giving up the dark side... Heh

[Maximilian Bernas]

I never looked at it that way. I really will, eventually, get Max back out and see what happens.

I believe the Sith power was a Force Scream, modified with a Bolt of Hatred effect, except it explodes in all directions. Sort of like a retributive strike from the old original AD&D for the Staff of the Magi and the Staff of Power.

I really don't know what else it was. I never asked my GM. He probably made it up.
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"Let your anger be like a monkey in a pinata"
- Master Tang

[Esoomian]

If you uncover enough darkside lore then you may figure out what was done to your character... and possibly how to undo it

Oh and have you tried using ysalamiri to see if your null field can be nullified (long shot but if I'd lost my connection to the force I'd try anything)

[Maximilian Bernas]

Esoomian, I hadn't thought of that... Leave it to a Kiwi to come up with a good plan! Thank you!

Seriously, Bernas had gotten powerful enough without The Force, having a part of it again might upset game balance.

I will post his stats elsewhere and allow any and all to peruse, use, and abuse him. Afterall, he'd be an interesting choice of Jedi instructor: those who can't do... teach!
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"Let your anger be like a monkey in a pinata"
- Master Tang

[Son of Fire]

That reminds me of my sig.
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"My schooling not only failed to teach me what it professed to be teaching, but prevented me from being educated to an extent which infuriates me when I think of all I might have learned at home by myself." - George Bernard Shaw

[Esoomian]

Just trying to think what I'd do in a similar situation...

And if that doesn't work you could always load up on cybernetics. It's not like a severed jedi would feel any real love for this cold empty body that he now inhabits

[Son of Fire]

True, true…but think of what kind of a game a “quest” to get his Force connection back would be like. 8)
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"My schooling not only failed to teach me what it professed to be teaching, but prevented me from being educated to an extent which infuriates me when I think of all I might have learned at home by myself." - George Bernard Shaw

[Crell Damar]

If my jedi were to lose his ability in the force, I would definately go to great lengths to return to the force. That, and without the force, he's really kinda weak...
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"For over a thousand generations, the Jedi Knights were the guardians of peace and justice in the Old Republic. Before the dark times... before the Empire. "

Obi-Wan Kenobi

[Maximilian Bernas]

Bernas isn't weak. That's probably why he hasn't tried too hard (that and the near constant depression)

But, in order to make his way in the galaxy, he formed the Max Corp. It is a research and development company in armor and weaponry. The Republic is his biggest client, followed by some of the larger Bounty Guilds and a few of the Noble Houses of the Expanse. He refuses to deal with the Corporate Sector, which occasionally causes some trouble, but Bernas has a reputation now that prevents any real damage.

In addition, he keeps some extra Adegan crystals and other focusing gear at his private shop to assist Master Skywalker in "attuning" a particular lightsaber to an apprentice.

The R&D portion of the company generates the revenue, and his lightsaber projects are his version of a "hobby farm." He's far too wealthy to really care anymore. That and the depression combined with heavy narcotics (like I said, really sad story).

At least he can get it together when he needs to (say for the New Republic or if Skywalker requests his presence). Hard to say if he would want Force powers now. He has a freedom Force-sensitive chars don't have.
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"Let your anger be like a monkey in a pinata"
- Master Tang