Settlement: Oli

THE VILLAGE OF OLI

The largest settlement on the isles is Oli (population ~1,000), a seaside village on the edge of the jungle responsible for much of the isles' economy. Oli engineers and guards protect and repair the isles' Lakua generator, the largest and most important weather-controlling device that wards the settlements from violent storms and maintains their near paradise climate for most of the year. Oli also provides travel submarine taxis to the larger underwater cities and is the primary producer of fussa on the moon. Its people subsist on de-salinated ocean water, local fruits, fish, and frozen fussa shakes.

Leadership. Oli is led by the elected human Moon Councilor Gil Avik, who owns the Mahina Spaceport and represents the interests of the 10,000 settlers who live on the Mahina Isles. Gil Avik has the reputation of being charming, generous, and inviting to outsiders. His decisions have been widely popular except for his allowance of a branch of the New Republic Bank to be established at the spaceport—most locals prefer to barter for goods or services and still practice barter economy amongst each other despite the bank's presence.

During the Lunar Conjunction, Gil Avik honors the seven members of local communities who have contributed most to the settlements' survival over the past year by sending them on a journey to the moon's dark, deadly far side. There, they release lanterns into the water vortexes that travel through the atmosphere to Kessel. Locals believe the isles will be blessed for another year if the Mahina Dragon appears and devours the lanterns along with the sea life. Some who make the journey do not return, and their likeness is carved in the trunks of great trees so their spirits will continue to protect their community.

NOTABLE LOCATIONS

Above the Undertown, a few structures made of wood-and-thatch stand atop stilts to protect them from flooding. While these structures can easily be repurposed to serve different needs of the village, currently, they are all used for specific purposes.

Undertown and Port Oli. While several stilt-raised buildings exist on the village's surface for trade and business purposes, most of the villagers live in the Undertown—a maze of brightly lit natural tunnels and root-infested subterranean hollows that run beneath Oli and the surrounding jungle. Deeper in Undertown, a large underground lagoon serves as a port for the village's submarine vessels that sometimes travel to the deep sea cities. Procuring passage through the port requires travelers to purchase or barter at the village's trade outpost.

Port operations fall to a gamorrian gang led by a cunning, cruel ex-pirate named Hukta Gleemus. Hukta and his gang briefly sieged Oli eight years ago. Gil Avik negotiated a peaceful resolution allowing Hukta a significant cut of the credits earned from managing port travel—in exchange, the gang gave up most of their weapons to the local guard and agreed to accept residency in the village. The gamorrians rarely leave Undertown and keep to themselves, but it is widely known and accepted that they still retain criminal contacts and make illicit deals on the side.

Cantina. The local Cantina is owned and operated by female dark-furred wookie Farkoo and her business partner, the fast-talking non-binary human Varlo. Farkoo slings drinks and manages security, while Varlo handles serenades guests with their charming voice and manages bookkeeping. Like many settlements, the Cantina is its social hub, where deals are made, rumors are mongered, friendships are formed, and occasionally someone gets blasted. A popular stopping point for travelers and those hoping to settle on the moon, the relatively poor and run-down Cantina still provides music, several rooms for rent, and breathtaking views of the Mah Sur Ocean just off its back porch.

Trade Outpost. Owned by the villagers as a whole, all profit made from the trade outpost is redistributed back to the village. Locals, in exchange, provide goods to be sold or bartered there. Managing the stock, currency exchange, and reporting finances back to Counselor Gil Avik is a full-time job for accounting droid 42-IC and the nature-loving female Ithorian woodcarver, Tenda Creeno. Well stocked on survival supplies, sometimes more interesting items pass through the outposts stores, each item with a story on how it came to find its way to the isolated moon.

Counselor's Lodge. Overlooking the bluff and the sea below, Counselor Gil Avik's home is clean, well-maintained, and filled with plantlife both local and bartered from locations across the galaxy. The Counselor's reputation for having a green thumb is known throughout the town, and the lodge smells of a myriad of wild and inviting scents. When the Counselor is away from the village on business, a rotation of two guards ensures no one enters his home. When Gil Avik stays in the village, his doors remain open, and he frequently sees villagers at his seaside office to help resolve local disputes and other concerns.

Doctor's Office. The village clinic is a two-story hut on the edge of town run by Nachkt, an old male trandoshan—and retired bounty hunter. Nachkt gave up the hunt thirteen years ago after witnessing a horrific event on the planet Kessel during the gang wars and the fall of the Pyke Syndicate in the sector. Nachkt is haunted by his past but refuses to speak of what he saw on Kessel. Instead, he has spent thirteen years putting his battlefield medicine skills to use and built the local clinic with his own hands. Not the most skilled doctor in the village—and not always reliable due to his drinking habits—Nachkt wisely relies on other villagers to tend to the sick and wounded. He has a room on the second floor of the office. The first floor contains a reception area run by the linguistics droid C-7T7. Through moth-eaten curtains in the back of reception is a simple four-bed clinic and its humble medicinal supplies. Those requiring services of a bacta tank must travel to Mahina Spaceport.

Guard Tower. Mahina attracts many ex-pirates, smugglers, and mercenaries who best contribute to island life by serving as village guards. Guards man the village's walls, patrol the forests, accompany scavengers and engineers on bi-daily journeys to the Lakua generator, and oversee the general security of the town. While natural predators sometimes threaten the village, the largest threats are pirates and scoundrels who come to Mahina to rob or capture locals and travelers in the jungles. Being a guard is the village's most dangerous occupation, and the most skilled guards tend to be short-lived in their position. Due to an extreme injury defending the village fussa-makers from an avian Death Screamer who migrated from Kessel, the previous male human Guard Captain Jama Wehrin has taken a leave of absence while they recover. In their place, the Counselor has promoted young Cori Halcorr to the position of Guard Captain.

The Guard Tower is the most weather-secure exterior structure in Oli, crafted from thick Kessel stone rather than wood and thatch. It features a small, not-well-stocked armory, sleeping barracks, meeting rooms, food hall, and a secret entrance to the Undertown. Guards often take up posts at the tower's peak, where they can easily look over the town walls to the trails leading into the jungle and down to the beach.

Drax's Lodge. The only local figure more well-liked than the Councilor is famous engineer Drax'ara Beren, an ancient Twi'lek whose purple skin has turned light grey in her twilight years. Drax has been unwell recently. Near the end of her life, she has spent what energy she has each day teaching a new generation of engineers and mechanics to tend to her creation, the Lakua generator that protects the isle. Since Drax has become less involved in the settlements' upkeep, and it has been years since a deadly storm or large Korcha Spore cloud ravaged the isles, people have become more relaxed regarding safety procedures and heeding warning sirens, relying on the Lakua generator in the nearby mountains to protect them.

Drax's home appears to be little more than a hut, like most other structures in Oli. However, the lodge's interior is packed with a maze of machinery, half-finished gadgets, unfinished blueprints, and trinkets from a long life full of adventures. Caring more about her belongings and tech than her own comfort, Drax repurposed a small closet in the back of the building to be her bedroom. It fits a small bed and a small, expensive, locked safe. The bedroom stinks of death, and those who visit it become reminded that the old legendary Twi'lek will soon be returned to the salt.

Fussa Bathhouse and Tents. Owned by the villagers as a whole, all profit made from the Fussa Bathhouse is redistributed back to the village. The largest bathhouse on the moon, deep stone pits have been carved into the back room of the building. The process of making fussa is closely kept a Mahina secret, and nobody does it with more love than the people of Oli, for whom it is both their most profitable export and most common occupation. A difficult process, the male quarren Saquinn runs the bathhouse and organizes the rotation of villagers working to create and distribute fussa. Saquinn's oversight is fair, but his demand for the procedure and proper care of the material is strict—it was his departed grandfather who discovered the process of making fussa, and he considers it his family legacy to ensure it is done right.

The Oli process for making fussa follows:

• Rotating groups of scavengers, engineers, and village guards travel every two days to the far side of the islet, through the cave and tunnel system, to check the Lakua generator. While there, scavengers draw up specialized nets designed to trap and kill Korcha Spores from the ocean to the cliff above. Once they confirm the spores are dead, they drag the nets back to the village. On alternating days, scavengers instead scour the jungles closer to the village to gather Galanni Fruit and drain sustainable amounts of tree sap from The Watchers.

• Each dawn, workers take rotating two-hour shifts at the Fussa Tents outside the village walls. The process and prolonged closeness to several harsh ingredients cause organic species to suffer painful headaches, necessitating a frequent change of shift. First, the makers meticulously drown the algae-like substance left over from dead spores in the overly acrid and fermented juice of local Galanni Fruit, careful to avoid contact or allow the escape of any living spores. They then cook down the mixture to a thick syrup, adding tree sap procured from giant purple trees known as The Watchers native to the isle. The sap contains alazhi bacteria that is also used to create bacta.

• Once the syrup cools, it hardens where it touches oxygen. Near the end of the day, workers stomp barefoot on the mixture until it becomes pulpy. Finally, they scoop up the pulp, rinse it with organic disinfectant, and mix it with salt water until the material gains the thin saline consistency and pale purple hue of fussa.

• While much fussa is stored in cold containers at the Trade Outpost, some of it is sent to the bathhouse. During the brief twilight period each day, the baths are filled with fussa made fresh in the village proper. The fussa is heated for several hours, so the baths reach 98 degrees Fahrenheit by dawn—the most comfortable and luxurious temperature for soaking.