Spoilers!

My players are soon to finish Act 2 of Chronicles of the Gatekeeper. I'm not really feeling the whole Korriban thing, so I was thinking perhaps Suljo Warde went to Yavin, where long ago he had met a troubled spirit in an old temple. This spirit, of course, would be the ancient Jedi-turned-Sith, Exar Kun.

I know we're already in silly coincidence territory, but we're going deeper. When they arrive at Yavin, they'll discover the smoldering wreck of a massive space station, and a great deal of chatter on encrypted Rebel channels. The Battle of Yavin has recently been won, and the Rebels are scrambling to evacuate the moon. The party is connected to a Rebel cell, so they'll be able to communicate, and will likely be hailed as late reinforcements.

I figure this could help launch the next phase of the game, both to announce that the Rebellion is in full swing, and, hey, that Death Star is still there. It's obviously suffered a massive explosion and is severely damaged and non-operational, but it's not destroyed.

That's basically the thing I'm asking about. Is that too hokey? Too coincidental? I figure they may have to postpone searching for Warde while they help cover the Rebels' escape.

Also, I don't know if the Rebel base was built in Exar Kun's temple (knowing how these things go, probably), but I'm gonna go ahead and say no.

I think it's a great idea. There's nothing in Act 3 that says the planet HAS to be Korriban/Morabund beyond the place being steeped in the dark side. But as you said, Exar Kun's temple meets that requirement easily enough.

Also pretty sure that the Rebel base was a separate location for the temple that housed Exar Kun's spirit, as that was the same temple Luke used to house his Jedi Praxuem prior to the Vong war.

And depending on the power/prowess/competency of your PCs, the confrontation with Suljo could also include the spirt of Exar Kun directly influencing events, either directly assisting the fallen Jedi (perhaps even in a bid to regain physical form) or harassing/hindering the PCs, especially if they start having too easy of a time against Suljo, by employing what amounts to reverse Battle Meditation, adding automatic failures and/or threats to their checks.

I like it. Sounds good and you certainly don't need any of us to permit you to include this in your campaign.

If your players like it than it's a good idea.

FWIW, I do similar things in my campaign to good effect.

I just couldn't tell if it was a little bit too heavy on the, "Oh, what convenient timing!" I figure it's Star Wars, so people are randomly bumping into major events all the time.

6 hours ago, Donovan Morningfire said:

include the spirt of Exar Kun directly influencing events, either directly assisting the fallen Jedi (perhaps even in a bid to regain physical form)

Oh, yeah, that's definitely where this is going. I figure Warde stumbled across the temple in his youth and met the spirit, who perhaps foresaw Warde's fall. Maybe gave him some cryptic line to remember, so that when he did fall to the dark side, Warde would remember it and come seek him out. Unfortunately, the Suljo Warde that returned to Yavin wasn't a cold-hearted dark warrior. Rather, he was a tormented, broken man who sought only penance and death. Kun had hoped to use him as a vessel to free himself, but he sees Warde as pathetic and weak. The PCs, on the other hand...

I don't think its a dumb idea at all. Adapting published adventures to fit your campaign and your table's preferences is a hallmark of good gamemasters. What is "dumb" or "cool" in this hobby is highly subjective.

17 hours ago, The Grand Falloon said:

I just couldn't tell if it was a little bit too heavy on the, "Oh, what convenient timing!" I figure it's Star Wars, so people are randomly bumping into major events all the time.

Yeah, that part's tricky. If you're concerned about it, perhaps the PCs arrive after most of the major evacuations (and thus, major characters) have already happened, meaning the PCs just missed those major/iconic individuals. What's left behind is a token force there to clean up as much else of the base as they can before the Empire shows up to drop the hammer, leaving as few breadcrumbs as possible as to locations of other Rebel outposts.

Or alternatively, go balls to the wall with it. Maybe because Luke Skywalker has made his major debue that this Warde figure has decided to come out of hiding; he wants a realtively will willed individual that he can break and if he is impressionable to the dark side, might be willing to go after the young man to force the confrontation with the PC's. What makes this particularly interesting is that at this point in his career, Luke is a great pilot but he isn't very experienced at all, he simply doesn't have the skills or technique to deal with a fallen Jedi like Sujo. This means he doesn't stand a chance against this senior Jedi if push came to shove.

Describe this guy kinda like the Brown Wizard from Lord of the Rings, only replacing lovely woodland creatures with Sith abominations and ramp up the sinister edge a bit; Warde knows that he is heading to his fated death and wants to present himself as an adversity the PC's have to overcome. He is willing to play this role for precisely that reason; he is a gigantic believer in undeniable fate and everything about his actions towards the Jedi should be aimed towards setting up or outright denying the circumstance of his defeat and subsequent death.

Well, Han and Chewie took their money and ran. Luke was shot down, but was able to fire off a shot that almost blew up the Death Star. The Death Star suffered a reactor explosion, killed a significant number of the crew, and will take probably years of repair to be operational, but it's not gone. Luke is alive and unconscious in a slowly depressurizing X-Wing on the surface, but he'll be rescued/captured by Vader's minions, and rebuilt when Vader realizes who he is.

Leia and the rest of the high command is probably long gone. I think there's at least one Star Destroyer present, but it's probably sticking close to the wreck of the Death Star, trying evacuate surviving personnel (include Moff Tarkin) and protect against any further rebel attacks. Both sides are likely in panic mode, with the remaining rebels scrambling to get off world, while the Imps paranoid about protecting the Death Star. A concentrated assault could prevent escape, but instead they're just sending TIEs and troop transports. Should be plenty of chaos for the PCs to lend a hand and then reach their destination.

The 1st 3rd of the novel "I, Jedi" by Michael Stackpole covers Exar Kun's Temple on Yavin. It's the non-Canon story of Corran Horn's path to becoming a Jedi.