Alderaan - Love and Intrigue

Ah, the Alde Royal History Museum. A bit...provincial compared to some of the places he had worked, but it had a certain charm to it. You never knew what you might find buried in the bowels of a Museum, but Kellen was an expert at finding the strangest things.

Approaching the desk he threw a charming smile at the person on duty. "Hello and good morning! Can you tell me if Padawan Yil Kumos is here today?"

He already felt at home here. There was something calming about the place. It made a nice change from the hustle and bustle of the Festival.

The staff directed him to her office just as security officers were departing. The Padawan was trying to straighten her office and looked a bit disheveled and her clothes were dirty with mud and even flecks of snow and much of the lower part of Jedi robes were damp.


She turned around and was about to grab something when she noticed Kellen. Startled by another unexpected guest she fell back tumbling over her chair landing in a very undignified tumble of robes and office decor.

She tried to untangle herself and said with a muffled, “Good morning.”

Kellen raised an eyebrow, but his expression softened and he let out a good natured chuckle. "Well well well. You Jedi really are an adventurous bunch aren't you? Good morning."

He stepped closer and offered a hand to help her up. "Was it an early morning field trip perhaps?" Taking note of the slowly melting snow on her clothes he added: "To the mountains it seems? Yet I wasn't invited? Well, you'd better get cleaned up. Can't be trailing mud around the collections can you now, hmm?"

"Well I was helping a fellow Jedi, but then we discovered that article 245-Z was missing from the archive. Stolen by a freelance procurement specialist, who may or may not be dead," she said a bit confused.

"And there was an explosion, frankly it's been a weird morning."

Kellen's expression darkened. "Stolen? From the archive? This cannot stand." There were few things that Kellen hated more than artifact thieves.

"Right then. We'd best get started. Can you pull up the files on 245-Z? I'll review them while you clean yourself up."

Explosions? Typical Jedi business then.

"Of course, professor," she responded handing him a datapad.

On it was information on 245-Z, it was a heated clay vase with stylized designs on the outside that she suspected was made by early human settlers working with the killiks but not as joiners, a time of join cooperation but she was only just starting that work. It's worth is based on the rarity of the piece and age, on the back market it could probably go for a few million creds to the right dealers.

There is also a note that a Ghoun Rist was interested in 'purchasing' the piece but the Alde trust declined the offer, this was about two months ago.

"Interesting..." Kellen made a copy of the information. It was a key yet poorly studied area of Alderaanian history so naturally his curiosity was piqued. He checked to see if there were any other pieces of a similar age and provenance in the museum, or even on the planet.

The note about Ghoun Rist also seemed important. He took a moment to consider whether this was a member of the family that he knew.

He was aware of the man but his branch lived on Delaya.

"Well now. Perhaps there is a field trip in my future after all." Kellen searched the Rist family comms list then dialed in a message to see about getting an appointment to speak with Ghoun.

A secretary answered and said, "Greetings thank you for calling the office of Ghoun Rist, how can I help you?"

Kellen gave the secretary his best 'dealing with Administration' voice. "Good morning. This is Professor Kellen Rist. I'm on Alderaan for the Festival of Flowers and was hoping to arrange a meeting. When might Ghoun be available?"

"Hmmm let me see, I see an opening in approximately two weeks, may i ask what this is about?" the secretary replied.

Kellen raised an eyebrow. "Two weeks? Oh no, that won't do. That won't do at all. This is a rather urgent matter and I would rather not have to involve the Dutchess at this point." The 'but I will if I have told was implicit in his tone.

"Time is of the essence."

"I see, well in that case he has... let me check," they put him on hold with wonderful jizz music playing for two minutes.

Then comes back, "Mr. Rist can take your call, shall I patch you through?"

Well at least their on hold music was tasteful. You couldn't beat a spot of Jizz in the morning.

"How wonderful, thank you very much. Yes, please do!" Family connections were a wonderful thing indeed.

A rich male voice takes the line, "Good morning, you are speaking with Ghoun Rist, how may I or House Rist be of service?"

"Ah Ghoun, so good of you to make some time for me. It's Kellen. Yes, that Kellen Rist. I'm doing some research at the Alde Royal History Museum and, well, your name has come up." He rubbed his eyes. "It's a rather sensitive matter so I wanted to speak to you immediately. Do you remember making enquiries about purchasing an item from the Alde trust? This was about 2 months ago now."

Ghoun responded, “Well I do a lot of business all across the sector, give me a moment.” There were some sounds of keys tapping and things being shuffled before he responded, “Ah yes, there were several pieces I wanted, but only a few were for purchase.”

“Your not coming back two months later saying you reconsider, are you?”

Kellen let out a bemused laugh. "Oh how I wish it were that simple. No. Can you tell me why you wanted it? Is there any chance that you were approached by a buyer?"

“It was just one of dozens on a docket, I am more of a money man, I have my people assemble the lists. But no buyer has approached me yet, but if that son of a bantha poodoo witch snatched that one up too, well I assure you that House Alde will be hearing from me in very sternly worded letters, I swear it.”

He cleared his throat and said, “I get the feeling that something has gone awry then?”

OOC: Discipline versus 2 red and a purple and a setback, if he wishes to test his words.