Kelyan

"About time you got here. You've eluded Kiimo and bested Clargod, I'm impressed. And I'm not going to fight you. I couldn't win, so there would be no point. But the tales I've told these little people! I've regaled with details of every evil deed you have committed, and more than a few you haven't. The warriors want to cut you down right now, but Elder Alexem here wants to give you a chance. So you'd better explain to the silly old geezer why they shouldn't kill you."

- Kelyan

Kelyan was a Twi'lek bounty hunter who worked on a team with Clargod, Dee'Hars, and Kiimo. In 21 BBY, the group took several contracts from Riboga the Hutt, who was reestablishing his criminal dominance over the Cularin system. These jobs brought them into contact with the so-called "Heroes of Cularin", a group who took several missions for Senator Wren. Their first encounter was on neutral terms, but as Riboga suffered setback after setback at the outsiders' hands, he eventually tasked the bounty hunters with taking out the "Heroes"—and making them suffer in the process.

Kelyan and her team set up an elaborate plan. They first forced the targets to crash land on Holador, a remote world with little in the way of civilization. There, Kelyan befriended a primitive tribe of Squibs and did her best to persuade them that the Cularin "Heroes" were dangerous villains. When the targets arrived at he village, however, they managed to establish their innocence. This was only one setback of many on the job, which ended a complete failure.

Kelyan was a beautiful woman and a smooth talker. Unlike the other members of her team, she carried a blaster only as a last resort. Her wiles were much more subtle: quick wits and a sharp tongue.

Target: Nirama's associates
At some point, Kelyan joined forces with the the bounty hunters Clargod, Dee'Hars, and Kiimo. The Twi'lek woman's charm and wiles made a good addition to an otherwise combat-heavy team. In 21 BBY, the team was hired by the Office of Peace and Security (OPS) to bring in two associates of a deposed crime lord named Nirama. The targets, named Kerum and Mattenic, also had a bounty on their heads from Riboga the Hutt, a crime lord who was moving in to reclaim Nirama's old territory, the Cularin system. The targets were supposed to be hiding out in Gadrin's industrial sector on the planet Cularin. The team got into position, Clargod outside and the others in a building across from the targets' hiding place. They waited for their trap to be sprung.

Kerum and Mettenic finally showed themselves and made a run for their speederbikes. Clargod intercepted them, while Kelyan joined Dee'Hars and Kiimo in firing over their heads to keep them on that course. The plan was complicated when a group of strangers appeared and seemed intent on intervening. Kelyan moved to address them; she recognized them as the "Heroes of Cularin", a group who had been making a name for themselves doing jobs for Senator Wren. The Twi'lek told the strangers to be careful and not to intervene; this was a legal capture for the OPS after all. Besides, she and her mates were just following the heroes' lead in protecting the Cularin system. When the targets reached their speederbikes, Kiimo's booby-trap stun grenades exploded. The targets went down.

The interlopers proved a problem. They were intent on speaking to Kerum and Mettenic about Riboga the Hutt's crime empire. Kelyan had to get rid of them. She proposed a trade: the "Heroes" could speak with her mate, Dee'Hars, instead. He knew just as much about Riboga as the unconscious prisoners did. In exchange, the interlopers would let the bounty hunters turn over their catch to the OPS as the law mandated. The heroes agreed. Kelyan and her team made out handsomely, paid twice for the catch.

Target: The "Heroes of Cularin"
Using Dee'Hars's information as a starting point, the Heroes of Cularin began a campaign of discouragement and humiliation against Riboga the Hutt. Kelyan and the others, loosely under Riboga's employ as events unfolded, saw firsthand the Hutt's operations set back and foiled. At some point, he hunters traveled to the Kemix system as part of Riboga's court on his flagship, the Rightful Dominion. Here, Kelyan and the others crossed paths with Wren's operatives once again in the ship's hangar; the ship was breaking apart as it entered the atmosphere of Kemix. Kelyan and her associates made it off the ship alive, as did Riboga. Nevertheless, the loss of the ship was a huge setback for the Hutt.

Riboga was furious and ready for revenge. The Hutt turned to Kelyan and her crew, but this bounty would be different. He did not just want these so-called "Heroes of Cularin" killed; he wanted them to suffer.

Kelyan and her colleagues investigated their targets and identified their weaknesses. Dee'Hars, the team leader, assigned each hunter a specific task and only apprised them of their part of the scheme; the better to keep the targets in the dark should someone be captured. Kelyan was ordered to do what she did best: mire the targets in endless spats and disagreements.

The bounty hunters tracked the targets down and booby-trapped their ship with ordnance. The explosives went off on schedule, and the so-called heroes were forced out of hyperspace over an isolated, little known world called Holador; within the planet's gravity well, it plummeted to the surface. In fact, things turned out better than Kelyan and her mates could have hoped; the targets were knocked unconscious from the crash landing, and the bounty hunters were able to infiltrate their ship, sedate them, and make off with their weapons, droids, and key starship components.

Kelyan set off to ingratiate herself with the inhabitants of Holador. She found a tribe of Squibs, the descendants of a band that had crash landed on the planet centuries before and who had been forced to adapt a primitive lifestyle to survive. Making friends with them was easy, as she was a fluent speaker of Squibbian. She spun yarns about made-up "Assassin Lords" and their clients, the targets, and she played up the "heroic exploits" of her and her team. Kelyan's talents seemed to work for the most part; over the few days she lived in their village, the Squibs grew more and more agitated. Nevertheless, their elder, Alexem, seemed not to buy in as readily.

The "Heroes of Cularin" arrived in the Squib village a few days after Kelyan had gotten there. She taunted them, revealing how she had lied about them to make their reception anything but friendly. She suggested that the new arrivals should bargain for their lives. She even offered to interpret for them.

To her chagrin, Alexem revealed that he had at a command of Basic, thus negating her linguistic advantage somewhat. Still, a tense back-and-forth ensued, with Kelyan reasserting the strangers' ill intentions and the newcomers protesting their innocence. Things turned against the Twi'lek. The targets convinced Alexem of their innocence and of her duplicity. Alexem decreed that, as a guest of the tribe, Kelyan would not be harmed, nor had she broken any tribal laws. Still, the strangers would be free to go, and the village would help them in any way it could. The "Heroes" departed, and Kelyan could do little more than watch them walk away.

In the end, the job turned out poorly. The targets escaped, and in the process, they defeated Clargod, Kiimo, and Dee'Hars. At least Kelyan escaped unscathed.

Personality and traits
Kelyan was beautiful Twi'lek woman with a gift for diplomacy and fast-talk. Although she carried a blaster pistol, her role was as her team's "public relations" specialist. When brute force and blasters failed to do the job, she put her golden tongue and bright ideas to the task.

Behind the scenes
Kelyan appears in the For Every Action Trilogy of adventures for the Living Force campaign of The Star Wars Roleplaying Game from Wizards of the Coast. In the first episode, Preemptive Strike, she is part of an encounter in which she and her team get between the player characters and some information they seek. This encounter has several possible resolutions, but one of them is labeled the most likely and is considered canonical.

The destruction of the Rightful Dominion in Counterstrike is optional. However, as this is the best possible scenario for the player characters, completion of this task is considered canonical. Thus, Kelyan and the others encounter the Heroes of Cularin once again.

In the third adventure, Strike III, Kelyan is the main antagonist of an encounter in which the player characters are expected to rely on roleplaying and non-combat abilities to advance their quest. Instead of fighting, they must contend with Kelyan, who is doing her best to convince Alexem and his tribe that the player characters are dangerous and should not be allowed to leave their village alive. The outcome of the encounter depends on players making good die rolls and thinking of ways to curry favor with Alexem and the Squibs, such as offering technological items, rations, or medical assistance. Should they do poorly, the Squib warriors attack as Kelyan has bidden them. Success means that Alexem and his tribemates decide that the outsiders are in fact harmless and befriend them. As the best possible outcome, this is considered the canonical event.