Ashin Varanin
Professional Enabler
Name: Velok’s Maw
Image Source: Screencap from ‘The Satan Pit,’ Doctor Who; same source applies to the hyperlink in the ‘Location’ field.
Classification: Cave system
Location: The horizontal airlock entrance to Velok’s Maw is located in a deep crevasse on a large asteroid in the Polis Massa system. This asteroid was a crucial location in the Battle of Polis Massa, the start of the Dark Harvest crisis.
Size: Small. Velok’s Maw is complex tunnel system with a total combined length of a few hundred metres.
Population: Minor. Small groups of Velok cultists (src) often take up residence in the caves. Most visitors find it necessary to clear them out, but they or their associates always come back eventually.
Demographics: The groups of Velok cultists are of random species composition.
Points of Interest: Horizontal entrance airlock; caves containing cultists, as described below.
Description: Ships avoid one asteroid in the Polis Massa system, and that’s a tradition going back years. Get too close, and you’ll feel a touch of fear left over from a cataclysm a decade old. Find the nerve to land in a certain crevasse, and you’ll find an airlock set in the rock. The airlock opens easily. Inside is a branching cave system full of breathable air. Small cave chambers serve as makeshift living quarters and meditation rooms. Various internal atmospheric containment fields and airlocks prevent anyone from simply flushing everything out of the cave by breaching the main airlock.
Assuming you’re Force-sensitive, you don’t feel any stronger here; this isn’t a multipotent Force nexus. Instead, it’s a place where thousands died while under the influence of Velok’s Phobis Device. The rock retains the stink of their terror. Velok cultists come here to test themselves against the power of their own fear.
Velok cultists, by and large, are not the cream of the crop so far as Darksiders go. Even so, as followers of the so-called Last Blackguard, they prize diverse knowledge and actively seek to kill other Darksiders. Common loot includes scraps of Force training materials from traditions across the galaxy, as well as trophies taken from Sith (lightsabres, scalps, living or dead Sithspawn, etc.). Sometimes a minor holocron can be found here.
History: In 836 ABY, the Dark Harvest crisis began when an abandoned, infected Star Destroyer of unknown make drifted into the Polis Massa system. Fleets from the Sith Empire, Republic, Hapes Consortium, Omega Protectorate, Black Sun, and Confederacy of Independent Systems attempted to claim the ship, whose engine technology dwarfed the standards of the time. The Republic and the Protectorate, always dubious allies, came to the brink of war over the ownership of the Star Destroyer, Meanwhile, the Sith Empire lost much of its force to long-range fire from the Republic. Hundreds of thousands of Sith Empire personnel died, and the Emperor, [member="Darth Voracitos"], withdrew his fleet from the system. At the moment of greatest tension, Confederacy forces clashed with infected Republic marines on a certain asteroid, fighting over possession of a mysterious artifact.
The artifact turned out to be Velok’s Phobis Device. When the Whiphid Dark Lord triggered the artifact, an aura of irresistible fear spread over a significant portion of the system. Allies turned on each other, confusion reigned, and the Phobis Device connected with the mind of [member="Spencer Varanin"]. Spencer, a powerful empath, became a telepathic antenna for the Device, and expanded the range of its effects.
As leaders scrambled to patch up misunderstandings, control their forces, and prevent all-out war, the Confederacy landed battle droids on the asteroid. The Confederacy secured the Phobis Device and removed it (as well as Velok’s ship, which contained it), but Black Sun destroyed the Confederate vessel that held both the Device and Velok’s ship. The fear effect ended. Eventually, peace came to the Polis Massa system, though the bad blood between [member="Ayden Cater"] and Chancellor Ardak Serifen would escalate in future months.
In time, the Black Sun commander, a Twi’lek named [member="Domino"], would be commemorated with a statue elsewhere in the Polis Massa system. But another memorial entirely was on the minds of Velok’s followers, especially after his death and binding at the hands of Master [member="Aleidis Zrgaat"]. Velok cultists began pilgrimages to the epicenter of the Polis Massa Force disturbance, the place where the entire Phobis Device effect had originated. A self-sufficient airlock system was installed in the mouth of the asteroid cave, and the tunnels were pressurized and outfitted with air recyclers. The cave system became known as Velok’s Maw, a place of pilgrimage and testing. Those who journeyed there, if they survived, tended to emerge either broken or forged by new mastery of their own fear.
Intent: A challenging raid location with a renewable supply of low-to-midgrade Dark Side cultists and relevant loot. A place where characters can test themselves against their fears and reexamine their resolve. As a note for further clarity, while Velok’s Maw is a place imprinted with Force fear, it is not a Force nexus: there is no reservoir of convenient power from which to draw.
Links: The original 200+ post thread (‘Dark Harvest: Dead Space’, which I DM’ed) was lost. In this thread, dated 836 ABY, a young scavenger witnesses the events described above, and encounters Velok cultists in a Polis Massa asteroid cave.
