Hey guys.

Just wanted to let you know that after tomorrow I will go on a two-week vacation where my access to internet will be limited. I will be able to post some evenings at least so it should never be more than a couple of days, three at most, until I can get online and get a post out.

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Torin is the winner of the 5exp! Congratulations.

No worries, friend. You enjoy that time away, we will still be here when you return!

Did you guys want me to chime in with some NPC dialogue now, too?

I imagine Solan and Grrowv might have something to say about the whole mess...

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Eya probably has something to contribute as well

Unfortunately Shy hasn't logged on to the forum for almost two weeks. I really hope she's doing OK.

Punching in a few numbers doesn’t justify ‘brilliant work’, but it was a start Embeetoo supposed. At least the clone wasn’t quite as stubborn as he supposed…only almost…by a slim margin. As the clone set course to the galley the battle unit continued to listen to the humming of the smaller bot, obviously not on the same level in terms of sentience. Tethered to master by force rather than choice, pitiful. Relatable. Unfortunate. “Current designation D-MB2, Medical and varying utility protocol, combative sub-protocol. Purpose: Redacted”, streamed he in binary.

Clomping nearer, the bulky soldier stooped to ‘her’ level and continued in his continuous strands of 1’s and 0’s, “For your best interest, I would suggest the Kel-Dor, Torin he calls himself. That one might not think on the most practical of levels, but he seems to at least look on our kind with some equality…seems. The Balosar has already proven himself a liar, the clone wears his for droids like a badge, the Togorian left town without paying for her tab so I doubt she is to be trusted, the human male seems a bit slow, the twilek is not to be trusted at this point…” with that his sensor lashed bright red and he loomed a bit higher than previously, “then again, YOU are still under scrutiny, and the human youth is unknown to me”.

Torin’s voice boomed though the ship, almost cutting of sensor contact with the foreign android. Almost. “Your best bet is the Kel-Dor. Besides: judging on that voice of his he seems to be leading this rag tag group of outlaws anyhow”. Creaking and crackling Embeetoo heaved himself straight, turning to the hall. “And by the way, S3-L3, I suggest forgetting about your previous master...for your sake.” With that, heavy footsteps broke out in the hall as Embeetoo marched toward the ruckus seeping from the kitchen before turning around and meeting Sally’s ‘eyes’ once more, “One more point, if you could I would appreciate it if you left whatever music the horned one has, had, on the table. Preferably jazz (note: yeah, I know what it’s technically called but I am not calling it that).

As Crow spoke, Embeetoo had clacked his way just outside the open entryway behind the masked Knight, letting the stemmy’s words sink in. “Clone, you have an excellent point”, Embeetoo droned almost contently, having taken his place next to his Master’s side. What a sight, what a sight. Quite the menagerie had gathered here, and not a single trustworthy face in sight (besides the Jedi, maybe). “I agree, it’s far too risky to keep the horned hostile breathing. A single, clean, painless shot to the cranium seems to be the best possible method.” An even shorter, deeper drone emitted from his chassis though as reluctantly Embeetoo continued, “But of course, I will leave that to my Master, albeit begrudgingly”.

“However, my term still stands- no Quermia.”

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Hey everyone, sorry about the absence. I've been in out of town for little over a week...which means after that I had to catch up on work and college work .

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No worries! I will also be doing a post this afternoon, I just have to finish some D&D notes first or my brain will explode... Here we go!

Solan:

"Quermia is no fun anyways, far too rigid to offload any illicit goods like the blasters we've snagged. I mean you could put into port there to get info, maybe check the Holonet, but odds are the ship will get searched and explaining this kinda stuff to officials is never a smooth ride. Gotta grease those palms. Ramani knows what I mean," the Corellian pipes up, his mouth full of the food he had found. Grrowv munches away stoically, her face an expression of distaste but her mouth moving as mechanically as any droid's. "That's on the Perlemian Trade Route, however, and we're headed... Towards Ithor?"

Without putting the spoon in his hand down, Solan reaches into a pouch at his waist and drags out a small data cube, clearly old, very well worn. Placing it on the galley table he taps a button on the side of it, and a small hologram springs into life above the tiny device. Waving the spoon at it, the man at least has the grace to swallow his mouthful before saying, "Hell, if I were thinking of running anywhere, it'd be there." The spoon finished moving, pointing to a tiny planet, orbited by two moons.

"Phaeda."

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Any or all of you within earshot may make a Knowledge: Outer Rim check, difficulty three purple, to see what you know of the planet that Solan has mentioned.

Chusara:

Tucking into the food with gusto, the Twi'lek woman abandons all sense of propriety and simply puts the food away. It's a functional eating, of the sort one might see in military service when on a short deployment rotation or snatching time between patrols or other duties. She eats methodically, taking each chunk of food and biting down, chewing quickly and swallowing a second before placing the next morsel in her mouth. She watches each of the group, her eyes darting around as though she is a cornered animal, worried that someone may take the meal away from her at any moment.

At the mention of removing Chak, she pauses for a moment. The rage is clear in her eyes. But she says nothing. She simply continues to eat.

Ramani finishes off his protein bar. He eats fast and clearly without getting much enjoyment from the experience. He listens to Solan with an indifferent look, but perks up when he mentions the stolen blasters. Best go see what that old fraudster Chack managed to stow away before giving them his lovely ship and cargo.

He watches Chusara with a trained eye. As he's quick to remind others, he is a people person. Knowing people is what he does, and he's good at his job. He discretely points his antennapalps towards the Twi'lek, trying to get some sense of what makes her tick. Clearly she's either been starving, or is used to not having enough. A former slave perhaps? Twi'leks were quite popular as pleasure slaves, dancers and servants. Apparently some Twi'leks sold others into slavery. A classic example of the clever benefiting from their advantage, Ramani thinks with satisfaction.

Ramani realises that Solan has finished speaking. "Phaeda, never heard of the place. Some sort of hive of scum and villainy, I take it? If so, I don't mind, as long as it has cheap women and loose booze, or was it the other way around?" He has actually chosen his banter with care this time, and observes Chusara carefully when he twists the old 'cheap booze and loose women' around a little. If she was a former slave she might react to the term cheap women. Particularly if she had been a pleasure slave.

Does Ramani know where Phaeda is?

Knowledge outer rim for Phaeda: 2eA+3eD 0 successes, 2 threat

He surely doesn't. But knowing the place and prattling on are two different things, so he prattles on!

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Knowledge Outer Rim: 3eA+3eD 0 successes, 1 threat

"Hmmm, I don't know anything about Phaeda. But I'll trust you. As for Chack, I've seen enough death for one lifetime - where should we relocate him? There might be a bounty on his head. He could help fund this venture of ours?"

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Outer Rim Knowledge Check: Phaeda: 5eA+3eD 1 success, 1 advantage

“If your concerns are that carnal and primal greasy one then yes, Phaeda is just the place for you." buzzed the droid, obviously a bit annoyed with the balosar's basic 'necessities', "Which is why we should distance ourselves from it if at all possible until the horned hostile is dealt with. If we must leave the organic alive then simply drop him off on Ithor. I doubt his allies have any reach in the Ithorian jungle.”

Embeetoo swerved his torso towards Torin, a short squeak emitting from his joints. “We simply do not have the time or connections to risk keeping this hostile onboard; if its funds you need than the rifles will do us all just fine”.

Once again the droid swiveled his top towards Solan, “Afterwards I could tolerate Phaeda; at least their level of tech is sufficient for my needs. I must point out however that on such a ‘loose’ world such as that Imperial blasters would be far less of a rarity. Perhaps we should look into distributing these weapons to those with a greater desire and need for said firearms, those who would be willing to pay far more than the run of the mill thug off the street with a million other vendors ready to push their wares”.

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What does Crow know of Pheada: 2eA+3eD 2 successes, 1 threat

"Phaeda, huh? From what I know the Imperial Garrison there is pretty blasted corrupt. At least, I think that was the place. Could be mixing it up with another planet," Crow says gruffly, not sure himself if it was Phaeda he remembered. He was getting slow in his advanced aging. "So, what? You want to hit Ithor, drop T'Vont off, then head somewhere to get the numbers better on the rifles? I'm not opposed to your idea, either, Torin. Could get a pretty credit or two for any bounty sitting on his head. But that also runs the risk of him getting loose and coming back after us for... All of this."

Pondering for a moment, CR-0216 thinks on the possibilities they have at this junction. Either drop Chak into a hostile environment where he might survive and come back for revenge; drop him at a Bounty Office where they could get paid and then if he doesn't face the death penalty, he would definitely come back for revenge; or simply space the joker. No coming back from that.

Kamino's bloody ocean, you are getting soft, trooper. When have you ever sat around mulling over this kind of business? That said, T'Vont's clearly a resourceful man. I could survive a few weeks on Ithor, or at least long enough to get back to civilisation and then find the buggers who dropped me there thinking I would cark it.

Looking over at Torin, the Clone says, "However... Chak isn't going to go quietly, and I dear say his mates will sort him out pretty quick if they catch wind of him being locked up. That's if he's half the player he makes out. I'm just bloody wary we made a fair few enemies today. Not least of which is the Empire. And I was happily ignoring them for the most part..."

Solan:

Finishing his meal, Solan sits back with a contented look on his face. He eyes Chusara, who is still guarding her meal as though it could be stolen at any moment, and then Grrowv, who continues eating stoically. "You are dead right it's corrupt, my mass-produced friend. So much so it's almost like Imperials will completely ignore you if you word things correctly and pay the right credits to the wrong folk." He takes a moment, then raises a hand to his mouth to cover a burp. Manner enough for that, at least. "And if you're this up tight about putting an end to Chak, we can do that for you. Of course, there'd be a price attached. Otherwise I don't hate the idea of dropping him somewhere awful to suffer for a while. If he does make it back to the galaxy after a jungle adventure, he deserves a shot at us again."

Grrowv:

At this, the large Togorian growls. She looks tired, her wounds, now dressed and attended to by Embeetoo, have clearly taken a toll on her. "I don't see why we'd waste a chance like this, Solan. You know full well the Mark on you isn't going away unless you do something to remove it. Here's an opportunity to get back into the Sun's good books... Or at least out of their bad. He's bargaining power, and I can't believe I'm the one who has to say it."

Ramani considers taking umbrage when the droid refers to him as ‘greasy one’, but decides now is not the time. “Listen, anything we do, short of spacing Chak or putting a blaster hole in his head, is risking him and his powerful friends coming after us for what we’ve done today,” he begins. The effects of the death stick have now almost totally worn off and he really wants to light up another. He decides to deny himself the pleasure until after this conversation. Master of self-control, that’s him.

He resists the urge of rolling his eyes as Groowv suggests using Chak as a bargaining chip. “Grrowv, I don’t think that will work out. If we want to use Chak as a bargaining chip to the Black Sun, we will need to return everything we took from him, and probably pay them compensation for shooting him and his men and disrupting their business. And I don’t know about you, but I don’t really fancy losing out on the ship and whatever cargo it holds just to try to negotiate peace with the Black Sun. Besides, they are just as likely to make an example of us as they are of dealing with us fairly.”

Having said his piece, Ramani gets up. “I don’t know about you, but I am getting curious what sort of cargo our new best pal, Chak, had gathered in his cargo hold before trying to steal the rifles. If we want to debate his future, we should at least know what we are risking in the process. I at least plan to find out what goods he has on board,” he says as he walks towards the cargo hold.

"Black Sun will be after us whether Chak is killed or not. Leaving him alive provides us opportunity. If there's a bounty on his head then we can shift the action on to someone else who wants him. Perhaps if we search the ship we can discover if Chak has been double-dealing or swindling Black Sun - and if so we can send them a message and drop off Chak and the proof somewhere and let them sort it out."

Torin tried to remind himself that he needed to be more careful. Jedi ideals were difficult to live by in the best of times and now, in the dark times, nearly impossible. Old habits died hard and Torin naturally fell back into his Jedi approach to life and justice but among this crew he knew he was unlikely to win out and Chak wasn't worth the use of force it would take to save him. The path of a Jedi was fill with conflict but Torin accepted his fate. He would do what little he could, but like many other things, he would have to accept what he could not control.

So I pretty much vanished off the face of the Earth for a bit, and I apologize. The explanation is that, basically, right when I was coherent enough to resume posting after being sick... my iPhone decided that it was time to throw a giant tantrum. So I couldn't post for a bit.

The good news is that my phone is finally fixed. I understand completely if I've been gone too long and you don't want me back, and I'm really sorry if my tech curse held up the game.

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Welcome back! And no way would I ever expect anything like that. It's only been an hour in terms of game time (or so), and I don't think anyone would be mad at you for having life to attend to. I certainly can't say anything, I'm always zipping on and off here in between meetings on busy days.

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Glad to have you back. Jump right in!

Welcome back The Shy Ion, you have been missed!

Grrowv:

Standing and pushing her chair back, the hulking Togorian follows Ramani out of the room. Her long strides help her catch the man quickly, and she then falls into step beside him. "I've realized neither of us has said thank you. We'd both likely be dead if not for you and your... Cleverness," she growls, haltingly. Anyone looking at her could see this to be true, the wounds across her body would probably have felled a lesser creature and the large woman seems to be operating on sheer willpower and perhaps a hefty portion of anger at the situation, or perhaps her inability in it. However she hides the pain well, her usual bass not tinged with any pitch that would denote suffering.

"So you think we might have something tidy in the hold then?" she asks as they arrive in the cargo bay.

The Cargo Bay:

As before, the bay is separated into a side with two prison cells, and the remainder. This other section is filled with all sorts of cargo crates, some labelled with food products, others with holo-discs, still more with cooking utensils. There seems to be no rhyme or reason to the layout here, or the way the cargo is arranged. It is simply stacked up, from wall to wall, slowly spilling out towards the cell area.

Before I post, Ramani is rather suspecting he might find some hidden compartments with the real cargo. Would I be able to roll a Perception check to see if he finds anything?

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Absolutely. If you wish to make a thorough check it will be against 1 challenge, 1 difficulty and 1 setback (1R1P1S)- this will take up to ten minutes. If you want to have a quick glance it will be 1 challenge, 3 difficulty and 1 setback (1R3P1S). I will also offer up to 2 Boosts if you can convince me why Ramani might suspect this or how he would go about looking for any hidden compartments that may be there.

Ramani looks at Grrowv with a small smile. “Don’t worry about it. It’s what I do. And you weren’t so bad yourself, you know.” He wanders around in the cargo hold.

“Dry fish? Who would buy two crates of this stuff? I mean, sure, if you were going to Ojom you might. Besalisks love this stuff. But you know…” he walks around some more, opening a crate that turns out to contain self-screwing screws. “…it all just seems so random somehow.” He looks into several more crates, digging into the cargo concealed inside. “Almost as if Chak didn’t care what’s in here because this isn’t the real cargo.”

He pokes around a little more, moving crate, testing the weight of a few of the smaller ones. “I think the old Chakster is hiding something. Some lose panels or something.” He walks around, knocking on the walls, stomping his feet on the floor, trying to determine if Chak might have installed smuggling compartment. “Or in the air vents.” He sniffs. “The air smells weird. Could be something blocking some of the airflow. Here, boost me up to that vent over there, I’ll just take a look.”

Ramani will take his time looking, unless some of you others feel like we can’t spare the time. I’ve outlined some of the places he’s thinking of. He’s opening crates, trying to see if they have false bottoms or stuff hidden under the innocent-looking ones at top. He’s also looking for false panels on the walls and floor, and taking a peek into the air vents. Let me know if that’s worth any boosts, also, if Grrowv is helping that might count as unskilled assistance (assuming she doesn’t have 3 ranks in Perception or Cunning 5!).

As a side note, the rest of you guys have fallen very silent. I suspect Shy Ion might still be having problems with her phone. But the rest of you could be doing your own thing while Ramani does this. Plenty left to talk about or figure out about the ship etc.!

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I'm still here. I've just been waiting for others to jump in.

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@The Shy Ion @primusnine @Jedi Ronin Agreed, but I am to blame as well, as I thought you'd all be so busy learning about one another's characters I'd only need to hop in a little here and there, so I will make more stuff occur in the next 24 hours.

Go ahead and take the extra 2 Boost, one of which does come from our less than Cunning Togorian friend, whose eyes are not spectacular but whose nose is pretty great. She will be searching for anything that smells like spice or weapon related things - cleaning oil, tibanna, etc.

Cool, Ramani will take his time looking:

Perception looking for a secret stash: 2eA+2eP+2eB+1eD+1eC+1eS 5 successes, 2 advantage, 1 Despair

Ho ho ho. Interesting. So you wanted an excuse for something to happen, you say?