Chak T'Vont:

Sneering up at Ramani, confident in spite of his compromising position and the dire situation he was in, Chak spits back, "If you think I believe that joke of a lie for a second, you're got less wits than I first thought." Shifting to sit more upright, even though the movement presses his neck against the razor sharp blade extended from Embeetoo's forearm, the Devaronian eyes the Balosar with a contempt and spite that almost have a physical force to them. "You might think you've got the best of this situation, but think about it for a second. I'm Black Sun. You know who Black Sun are, right? They'll hear about what happened on Ord Mantell, and no matter which way you run, or where you try and hide, they'll come looking for the people who cost them money. They always do."

Narrowing his rage filled eyes to a glare, Chak continues, "And don't think my death will mean anything. No one in our line of work lives to see old age. If I die here, all you'll gain is a Mark." The capital letter at the beginning of the word is audible, this is something serious in the criminal world, and T'Vont expects Ramani to understand what it means. "Then where will you go and run your mouth? Set foot on any Black Sun planet and they'll be on you like savrips on a corpse." His speech increases in both volume and anger as he continues, now to the point of shouting, impotent though he knows it is.

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I just don't know what to say, friend. Five positive dice, one is blank and three net only advantage. Three negative dice and you get a double failure... My real life group hates purple dice so much. We'd rather risk the Despairs in all honesty. At least then you get narrative hilarity!

"Uhh... Not really, no. Just the first three parts of my batch number, C, R, Zero, make it sound like Crow is you say the Zero as O," the Clone replies to the droid, somewhat hesitantly as it has only just dawned on him that the naming conventions given to droids almost exactly match the way Clones picked up their nicknames in some cases. I wonder if the old Jedi realized that, the day he came up with the name... He couldn't help but wonder if it was a way to 'humanize' the vat grown soldiers, for lack of a better term.

Looking at the machine properly, Crow sees the way it moves, stands, gesticulates. Programmed to imitate a person. Not unlike me, I guess. A rush of feeling washed through the aging warrior, who had to keep reminding himself of how many years old he actually was. Shaking himself from the thought, he tuned in more to what 'Sally' was saying. "Wait, you said any order? I have some questions that I want you to answer. What kind of work does Chak use this ship for?"

On 3/4/2017 at 1:39 PM, The Shy Ion said:

Eya sighs in relief as Ramani leaves, and looks up at Torin. "It's a long story..." She trails off without being sure quite why. She had wanted only moments ago to say everything, even the parts about the Force—the parts she had not even told Crow.

"I wasn't one of yours," Eya finally forces out. It's not what she meant to say. "But I'm running too."

"Ah, well. I still think we can help each other. My kind don't really exist anymore but I do what I can when I can. We should share our experiences."

Torin was interrupted by shouting from the direction Ramani had gone.

"Sounds like you're friend has decided to antagonize someone else. Perhaps we should intervene? We're all stuck on this boat together running from the Empire..." Torin gestured down the hall waiting to follow Eya.

2 minutes ago, Jedi Ronin said:

"Sounds like you're friend has decided to antagonize someone else..."

*Cries in Balosar*

Ramani laughs in the Devaronian‘s face. He then flicks the end of his deathstick, activating the device. He feels the effects of the drug coursing through his veins as he inhales the smoke. Not bad. Not bad at all.

“Oh, no,” he says in a mocking tone to the enraged Chak. “Another black mark for me. Do I get a bonus if I collect a full set?”

The Balosar sucks greedily on his deathstick, blowing smoke in Chak’s face. He can already feel the effects of the drug. He’s more relaxed, all the colors seem brighter and nicer and even the fabric of his clothes seems softer somehow. “It really doesn’t work as well as advertised, you know. I’ve had one for years now and I’m doing fine.” He chooses not to think about his current financial and social situation and how he most certainly isn’t fine by any stretch of the imagination. No need to dwell on the past.

“Well, to be honest, Chaky my friend, I don’t think you rate high enough with the Black Sun for them even to worry about what happened to you. At best, they might scratch their heads a little and wonder what happened to that smelly, foul-mouthed Devaronian they used to know. But most likely it will be business as usual, someone else will take your place. There is always someone ready to take your place. But then, you know that, right? Chakster.”

The Balosar finishes his deathstick, holding the spent stick in his hand, as if to examine it. “So, for me, the worst that can happen is that you are not full of bantha-poodoo, and they actually put another Mark on me. And kill me twice if they ever catch me. But, realistically, if you take a walk out that airlock right now, odds are that’s the end of it.”

Ramani tosses the spent deathstick on the floor. He steps on the bud as he moves closer to the Devaronian, ignoring the fact that more people seem to have joined him. “Tell you what,” he begins, as he starts to pat Chak down, looking for anything interesting, especially any credits the slimy smuggler might have used to pay for the crate of rifles. “I don’t think you ever intended to pay me and my associates for the rifles. I think you meant to use your lizard friends and our friend Crow threaten us, or simply blast us down and steal the rifles.”

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Ramani is trying to pat Chak down. If he doesn’t find any credits in the amounts needed to buy a crate of rifles, he will assume that he’s correct, and that Chak never intended to pay for the weapons. If not, well, we’ll all be just a little richer, so that’s not bad either.

Also, there is still the matter of the 5 kriffing advantages on that failed check. Could I use some, or all, to have Ramani notice that Chak was trying to get to a hidden compartment? I assume that’s what he was doing when he tried to shuffle to reach something?

And for the record, that was 6 blooming positive dice vs 3 negative. Can't catch a break in this game...

Eya nods to Torin. "I swear, I can't leave that man alone five minutes." With that, she follows the sound of angry Devaronian.

When she arrives, Ramani is threatening the captive with a long walk out a short airlock, while the droid presses a blade to Chak's throat. She pauses in the doorway for a moment, surprised. She'd expected Ramani to be... Ramani-ing, not conducting an interrogation. She enters, but waits until Ramani finishes to speak.

"This looks like security work. Trying to put me out of a job, Ramani?" The slight amusement the situation has surprised out of her is barely audible, her flat affect making the question sound more like an accusation.

Eya is suddenly very aware of the knife in her boot. She itches to take it out, to conduct this apparent interrogation by the method she was trained in. After all, Chak tried to kill her and her new crewmates...

Her fingers twitch. She looks at Torin, though she's not sure what she expects him to say.

It is possible Eya has a rather iffy understanding of what "security work" entails.

Ramani turns to look at Eya, his hand firmly down Chak’s pocket as he frisks the Devaronian. What now? Is that crazy girl going to try to intimidate him some more? When she speaks about security work, his eyes narrow. “Not trying to step on your toes. Just testing my theory that Chak here never intended to pay for the guns.”

The blade shifted ever closer to the horned aliens jugular, now lightly but meanacingly laying on Chak’s throat, as Ramani begins to shuffle threw their captives pockets. So the organic was Black Sun? As if that meant anything. There were thousands of planets untouched by the brigands and zero witnesses to prove they were the ones to commandeer the vessel.

“If we’ve established this hostile’s life has no more value to us”, began the droid as he kept his focus locked on the Balosar, “Then it would be best to dispose of him swiftly. You don’t need him alive to raid his clothing, greasy one, and further interrogations do not seem fruitful.”Embeetoo proceeded, indenting the prisoner’s neck a bit more without splitting it open, “Besides, ‘no one in his line of work lives to see old age’ anyway”.

His gaze broke however with the entry of his Master and the scarred one, curious as to how long the duo were standing there. “Security work?” The metal man was a bit confused with her terminology; this was obviously not guarding anything. “Scarred one,” he continued in his monotonous, deep and tinny voice, “This is an interrogation. Or at least it was; it could very well be an execution now.”

“Master” garbled Embee as his top half pivoted to meet the Kel-Dor straightforward, “I caught this hostile trying to scurry away. From what I could gather this is the original captain of the freighter…and he has far outlived his usefulness. Shall I proceed?”

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Ramani - Do a Skulduggery check against one red, one purple and one setback to see what Chak has on him. I am praying for you and the dice.

Embeetoo - Please roll an Intimidation check against one red, two purple, with one boost dice from Ramani.

S3-L3:

Startled at the sudden change in tone, and the direct question, the droid perks up and looks directly at Crow. "Well, that is a far easier request to fulfil than the one I just regaled you with. The Forgotten Odyssey has been used in a variety of roles from various Black Sun Syndicate members, and while I can only recall the logs since I was transferred on board, the time under Master T'Vont's command has been in a smuggling capacity, as well as temporary use as a prison ship for bounty contracts, debtors who would not pay on time, enemies of the Black Sun and generally unfortunate souls who wound up on Master T'Vont's bad side. An easy thing to do, I must say."

Turning towards the memory core console, 'Sally' rapidly types in commands in the way only a droid could. Information flashes down the screen in quick blocks of text, detailing various cargo and transport orders, as well as a series of financial transactions from one block of the Black Sun Syndicate to another.

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Crow - If you want to try and get any of this information as it flashes past, I'll need a Perception or Vigilance against three purple, one black.

Speaking as it works, S3-L3 does not turn to look at CR-0216, "Our more recent enterprises were transporting illegal cargo, spice for the most part, to various hidden drop locations around the sector. Master T'Vont then used the Odyssey on a personal errand, visiting with a Black Sun Vigo named Alder Deng on Ansion. That's where we picked up the current resident of the holding cells, Chusara."

A display flashes up, showing a Twi'lek female, clad in simple clothing, huddled in the corner of a cell walled off by laser fields. Amenities in the form of a bed, a refresher and nothing else grace the tiny space. "She apparently has some information valuable to Master T'Vont, but she has yet to divulge it, in spite of prompting from the Master, the Trandoshan bodyguards, and sadly, myself."

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Coercion Check: Chak in Hand- Pain in the Neck: 1eA+1eB+1eC+2eD 0 successes, 2 threat

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Really do need to pour a bit of XP into Coercion. Could have gone worse though. I would like to point out that what he said was not really a form of intimidation/ Coercion (at least not intentionally) on D-MB2's part. He really just thinks the most rational, practical, and safest option is to flat out kill Chak. He just needs his Master's permission to kill those who are not immediate threats (though perceived threats can be dealt with non-lethally by such ways as blasting their knees) or he would have done it right after Chak mentioned the Mark.

Also, I second that prayer. You've got this Kymrel!

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I know it wasn't a deliberate action as such, but the group acting as they are towards him is making him fear for his life expectancy, even as he rails against the possible outcome. The roll was to determine his next behavior and how he would take the casual conversation about execution.

"His life has value to me. Exterminating him will not do. I believe relieving him of his ship and finding out what he's been up to on this ship then depositing him safely on some out of the way planet will help him recompense for his crimes." Torin's voice boomed from his mask.

Chak T'Vont:

"Crimes? Ha!" the Devaronian spits, his face a mask of contempt after Torin finishes speaking, "Who are you to comment on crimes? You're wanted by the Empire. You cut down Stormtroopers using your laser sword. You hijacked my ship. When's your recompense due, huh?" Still struggling with the ties, Chak broadcasts a sense of confidence one would not expect from a person in his situation.

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Ramani - I will also do you one better on the 5 advantage. You can spot a hidden storage compartment, disguised rather cunningly as an electronic access panel, yet there seem to be no devices it could link to, given the placement. It's a trick you have seen once or twice before in your career. The size of it roughly fits a handheld weapon of some sort, or perhaps a communications device.

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Trying to catch info on the screen: 2eP+1eA+3eD+1eS 1 success


Boom. What do I catch? (This was Perception btw)

"Bloody hell, you've had a prisoner on board and we're stomping around here not giving a Jawa's cuss about the poor thing? I'd question why you didn't tell me about her earlier, but I bet you'd bloody well say I didn't ask," Crow growls as he leaps to his feet, closing down the navigation console but saving the location for when it was next activated. Racing through the ship towards the cargo bay, assuming the only place large enough to house cells would be that part of the vessel. Striding into the main corridor, he comes across the unfolding scene of the "interrogation", just as Torin delivers his words in a commanding tone.

Freezing, CR-0216 can't help but remember the way the Jedi were when in charge. Exactly the bloody same as this, he agrees with himself, It's like they get taught how to be obeyed. But then, the order isn't directed at him, and the Clone pushes through the ingrained behaviour, refusing to succumb to something that is not relevant to him. But, he can't help chiming in, "You know, if I get a say in the matter I say we space the womp rat. Bloody con artist he is, making me think he was heading Coreward when he wasn't, used me as part of that sham of a deal. Sorry about that, by the way. Meant to say something earlier, but you know... The guns and all."

Pausing as Chak cuts in, his vitriol clear in every expression and word, Crow can't help but feel for the guy. I wouldn't want to get caught up with us, not after all that went down. "Well, to be fair, I'm the only one that's hijacked it so far. And I figure you owe me anyway, given your kriffing lies about the transport. Just as a by the by, ladies and gentlemen, Sally the ship's droid has just now decided to let me know this poor excuse for a sarlacc has a prisoner on board. Some Twi'lek named Chusara. I'm gonna go and let her out, if there's no objections? Don't like the idea of someone stuck in all this with no bloody idea what's going on."

Alive? How many threats was the Jedi going to let simmer and plot against them. First that insect of an agent and now him? This Jedi doesn’t seem to understand how good hatred and embarrassment work wonders as motivators of revenge. And they were just going to drop him off on some backwoods rock and call it penance? Still, he couldn’t dismiss the air about his Master; something powerful and yet unneededly reserved.

Before he could chime in his immense displeasure, Crow had already rushed in like an iriz in heat. The clone, he did not disappoint. Of course a soldier would want to eliminate such a threat; finally some reason! Already it seemed as if he was going to enjoy this one’s company. But all of a sudden now he says there is yet two more on the ship who may or may not be speedbumps in his overall plan. The worst part was his desire to free one of them…without any sort of examination? No, no, no.

“If my word has any weight clone,” the droid cut in quickly, “and judging on today’s experiences it probably won’t, but it would be foolish to release an organic we know nothing about”. He kept his sensor squarely on Torin as he spoke, his blade still in place. “But, if my Master here is against the execution of a potentially dangerous threat than I say we should at least take this one to the holding cell you described for the time being…preferably with no knees, or fingers, or hands, or feet, or eyes, or toes...that one’s redundant he wouldn’t have any feet, or ears though I doubt that rational dismemberment will happen here today unfortunately'.

"Dealing with prisoners is security," Eya says. At Crow's arrival, she... well, it's a smile. It's just not a reassuring one. And it drops quickly when she realizes that Crow is at odds with Torin on the subject.

"I do agree with Crow," she says, turning back to Torin, "but I'll obey your orders." If she doesn't—well, she can't alienate him. Not with all the hopes she's pinning on him. "It's good to know that there's a brig on the ship. That sounds like a serviceable place to put to Chak until we've come to a decision."

"Why do you say organic like it's a curse word, droid?" Crow can't help but fire back, "And, if it's alright with you, I'd prefer letting the prisoner who knows things about The Black Sun, according to the other droid... Who I assume you would trust by bloody virtue of being a mechanical bloody being... Out of her cell early, so we don't have to deal with the whole bloody fallout of that, later."

Realizing he'd raised his voice to almost parade levels, CR-0216 calms down. He wasn't going to let a battle droid get him fired up, no sir.

Well, it would seem the clone still held on to a useless and baseless prejudice from over four years ago. Maybe they wouldn’t get along as well as Embeetoo had hoped after all if he would jump to such conclusions so quickly.

Still speaking in his monotone tone the gaze of the droid shifted towards the unnecessarily loud stemmy.

“You jump to conclusions far too quickly clone. I’m simply stating the obvious: you don’t know who they are. Organic, droid, or cybernetic it doesn’t matter, it’s ‘bloody’ common sense. And I would suggest you relieve yourself of such rash words, or biases, for the future’s sake”.

Narrowing his eyes, Crow holds his ground, internally amused that the droid is currently holding a Devaronian at knife point while lecturing someone on jumping to conclusions. What did this thing know of Chak, given he turned up after we'd captured him? "I'll keep my bloody biases, thank you. Years of fighting you and your clones,' he says with a parody of the droid's flat tone, 'Have made me less than accepting of a walking, talking war machine designed to kill me and my brothers with callous efficiency."

A couple short, audible buzzes emitted from Embeetoos chasiss, the closest thing to laughter the old droid could muster up. “Let’s remember, we were designed to kill each other, clone. During a war four years past, which ended with my Master’s “brothers” doing the sensible thing and trying to bring strength back to the galaxy with their failed coup. I don’t see you murdering the Master, and he’s a turncoat by all means, something much worse than a foe you know. No offense Master".

He shook his body lightly in mockery as if to shake his head before continuing. “How many droids have you killed? Does it even matter to you, do you even remember? I’ve killed 28 of you, each one I hold in memory…each one I gave a clean respectable death, a shot to the head. Can you say the same?”

Ramani suffers an additional setback for using a Deathstick. Here goes nothing:

Skulduggery patting down Chak: 3eA+1eP+1eD+1eC+2eS 0 successes

And, would you belief it, the drug-induced die was exactly enough to fail the check. Not even a little surprised here.

I'll get an IC up soon. I'll probably have Ramani drift off and not finish his job, or not have his full attention on what he's doing thanks to the deathstick's effects.

"Actually," Crow scoffs derisively, "I was designed to bring peace to the Republic. We didn't even know the B2 series existed when we dropped into Geonosis." Trying to control his anger, and not doing well, the Clone's voice lowers to a rough snarl, "And I couldn't bloody keep count on the dozens that I personally took out. The difference being, with us organics, is we can't just get rebooted into a new body, clone or otherwise."

Looking around the room, and reading the faces of the others, he knows this conversation isn't what they need right now, so Crow relents. A little. "Either bloody way, I'm letting her out. Eya, if you need to check her, fine. Bring that horned rat to replace her, if you'd feel better having at least one non-mechanical confined on board, droid."

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Stuff is heating up!

Ramani - Wow. Ok. I would hug you if I could. Sadly you don't find anything on Chak's person that isn't already visible. Whatever secrets he has, he has either hidden them well or they are on the ship instead.

Crow - You see, but only for a second or two, a cargo manifest detailing a list of very lucrative spice trades between Black Sun and a Hutt whose name you just catch: Zaxxo. However with the one success, you can't see where or when, just the spice in question.

All this commotion. Suddenly the hallway next to the entry ramp is flooded with people. Arguing people. Ramani still has his hand in Chak’s pocket. His empty pocket. He picks up some lint from the very corner of the pocket, holds it in front of his eyes, rubbing it between his thumb and his index finger. “That’s probably what he was planning to pay us with,” he giggles. “See, no credits. He was planning to rip us off.”

He does notice the strange panel next to Chak. He is meaning to bring it up, but people are talking and it never seems to be the right moment. Later, he decides.

He listens to the back-and forth for a little while. He gives Torin a confused look when he claims Chak has value to him. “He whot now, how?” Ramani says, but doesn’t get going since the others seem content to speak in ever louder voices.

He listens to the argument for a little while. “Do you sing, Crow?” he suddenly asks. “I think you have a lovely voice. I think you should sing us a song.” When Crow seems disinclined to take his suggestion, Ramani holds up his hands. It’s clear to the others that the deathstick’s hallucinogenic and relaxing effects have hit the Balosar full-force. “Ok, ok, later, this might not be the time for a song.”

He shuts up and actually notices something Chak says about the strange Kel-something alien using a laser sword. “Wait, what?” he begins, staring at the strange, masked alien. “You have a laser sword? That’s awesome. AWESOME. Can I see it? Did it belong to one of those weird space-wizards that betrayed everyone? Did you kill one of them for it?”

He steps closer to Torin. Those patterns on his skin are amazing, Ramani thinks to himself. They swirl. He’s never seen a skin that actually moves. In fact it is completely immobile, but the effects of the deathstick make him believe otherwise. He steps closer and waves his finger in the Kel-Dor’s face, tracing the pattern he perceives as moving with his finger from a few centimeters away. “I like your skin,” he says abruptly. "I've never seen moving skin before. Or, you know, skin moves, but with the person, see? The moving patterns are so pretty. And I used to think you were so very, very ugly. I guess everyone has something nice about them if you look closely, eh?"

Ramani, relaxed as he is from his lovely, lovely deathstick, almost misses the fact that there is a prisoner on board. It’s not until Crow brings up the subject again while arguing with the droid that he finally notices. “Hey, that’s awesome. We should chuck Chak here…” He stops mid-sentence to giggle. “Chuck Chak, that’s a good one. We should Chuck Chacky-boy here in his own cell and talk to this prisoner-person. Let me do the talking. I’m really good, you know. Can get anyone to talk. Does anyone want a stick?”

Through the lovely, thick, haze of the deathstick’s effects he suddenly remembers something. As usual, the drug has allowed him to relax, forgetting for a little while his little plots, plans and worries. But he does remember one thing. They are going somewhere. But where? “Hey, clone-crow-guy. Where are we going, anyways? Is it somewhere with a sunny beach and a place that sells drinks with little umbrellas? I like those,” he says longingly. Before the clone can answer, Ramani adds, as a completely innocent afterthought. “It’s good to know we’re in hyperspace, otherwise I’d be worried about Chak’s droid in the cockpit,” he says, and giggles a little.

Are we all fine with the fact that we are still in Imperial space, not yet in hyperspace, and have an unknown droid alone in the cockpit?

@waywardgm Don't worry about it. I would have passed if it wasn't for the extra setback for the deathstick. So, really, it's Ramani's own fault this time. Just say no to drugs, kids!

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Just a reminder - the droid has now informed multiple people it follows orders to the letter, and I have done a quick check on what the last thing said to it was. S3-L3 won't make any moves without a command. But I would hope it puts you all on edge!