Thrawn's Wake IC

[Lost_Deep]

In Thrawn's Wake

The defeat of Grand Admiral Thrawn has not brought peace to the galaxy. Though the Imperial holdings are fracturing, the New Republic's faith in the ability of their leaders is shaken.

Worry grows about corruption on worlds in the outer rim, either the influence of some warlord, or the corruption of the galactic underworld. Investigations are mounted, with the hope to curb any threats before they can take root.

The New Republic hopes that corruption is the only thing it has to worry about...

(For maximum effect, insert the above into this. (http://www.starwars.com/games-apps/star-wars-crawl-creator)) I would have done that myself and linked it but the share function is broken...

A YT-2400, practically brand-new, flies toward a blue planet with green splotches.

Sitting in one of the back seats in the cockpit, a woman in comfortable-looking but elegant clothing looks at the planet. “Huh, I thought an imperial fortress planet would be more grey.”

“Druckenwild had been a fortress planet a very short time, comparably speaking, when the New Republic was instated. The useful land is heavily urbanized, but the vast majority of the surface of the planet is oceans and wetlands,” the grey-plated droid standing behind her says. “It is currently trying to return to its roots as a strong business planet, albeit a well-armed one.”

Jacqueline Strauss raises an eyebrow. “I didn’t expect you to know so much about this planet, M-3PO.”

“I have the Galactic Gazetteer page open,” the droid states, “my role on this mission is purely informative. I intend to supply any information needed as best as I can. In this case, despite the alleged intention to return to the planets’ roots, it was made into a fortress world, however briefly. The intent of a fortress world was a controlled populace on a planet that could repel invasion and occupation. Implanting informants and sleeper agents among the populace was common practice. As a result, the risk of governmental corruption is high, causing it to be a candidate for our method of investigation. That said, Miss Strauss, I worry that we may need to remind the crew we are not in the outer rim yet. I fear that of them may be too eager to embrace the lax laws of several of our later stops.”

Jacqueline nods. “I’ll be sure to remind them. Even if this was the outer rim, fortress worlds aren’t exactly hives of scum and villainy. At least not the kind where you can carry a blaster rifle on your person and not get in trouble.”

“We will be hailed by Druckenwell Control in 5 kilometers,” M-3PO states, “Unless you intend to dally a bit after landing, you should circulate your reminder and have the crew prepare now.”

Jacqueline stands up, and takes a final look at the pilot and any others in the cockpit. “Be sure to be cooperative with traffic control, even before this place was made into a fortress world it was a stickler for regulations.”

((Meet your important NPCs: Jacqueline Strauss and M-3PO. They will be your plot ticket, and meal ticket, until further notice.))

OOC Thread (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?392216-Thrawn-s-Wake-OOC)

[Artemis97]

"I'm certain we can behave ourselves." Says the red-skinned Twi'lek woman lounging in the co-pilot's seat. She wore a decidedly slinky dress in a blue so deep it was nearly black, the fabric shimmering when she moved, cocking her head to indicate the pilot. "I can't speak for the others, though." Eyla'dan shrugged, her lekku moving to indicate some regret and worry.

[Darkcomet]

"Yeah, yeah, no need to tell me not to pick fights at an Imperial fortress planet. Some of us have sense," Argent declares without looking up from her piloting.

A few words about our pilot friend, since I forgot to actually put a description in the character sheet. One, being from the Tarisian middle city rather than the lustrous upper spires, and simultaneously being something of a recluse, she's rather pale, not seeing the sun too often. It helps that even after she left, most of her time was still spent on ships. It's to the point where it looks slightly unhealthy, and the messy, short black hair doesn't do much to change that impression, nor does the kinda spindly build. The blue eyes, on the other hand, are pretty much just there.

And of course I'm bad at describing clothes, so you're just going to have to imagine something, I dunno, some smuggler would wear. Fairly heavy, too, to match with her set of armored clothing.

She twitches impatiently, with occasional glances in the direction of the red twi'lek. There was a conversation that needed to happen once they had a hint of privacy.

And just for fun, and because our good friend the pilot is exceptionally paranoid, she's also going to be trying to get a read on our esteemed NPC leader. And possibly her current co-pilot if that's possible. Because why not? Might not work, though.

And indeed, it doesn't, nor does she particularly feel like tapping into the dark side purely to indulge her paranoia.

[Vespe Ratavo]

Meanwhile, in the main hold; a young human woman sits hunched over a dejarik board, tapping a finger against her lip and furrowing her brow in thought. "Iziz? You're good at this game. Really good. And I hope you never get to do this with real people, you crazy little stoopa." The checkered dejarik table is strewn with the bodies of tiny alien holograms. Aren waves a hand, and a great lumbering beast steps over the body of his comrade, into the threat range of three of the Jawa's pieces. Hopefully, it would survive the following turn, allowing the pieces advancing along the rim to close and assist. "Ready to get gouged?"

The merchant wears a simple green tunic and brown pants, the kind that might be found on a hundred different worlds, in different arrangements for different sets of limbs. Her leather jacket is one of many left over from an unsuccessful stint selling "fine bantha-hide jackets." Her red hair is arranged in a pony-tail, though with a few stray bangs she has to brush away from her eyes now and then.

[blackouttwo]

Meanwhile, the Jawa standing in his chair across the table (he's too short to see it if he sits down, give him a break) is staring intently at the creature Aren has so tantalizingly placed in striking range. He tapped one finger on the table in an agitated manner, thinking as he jabbered briefly in Jawaese. "Hoon'bara dabitah pormriji! Soom'ara dahtia!" From an angle that, at first, hadn't looked clear, one of the Jawa's monsters from the rear of his oncoming horde suddenly charged across the board and began to brutally and mercilessly beat down one of Aren's creatures to his force's right flank. A bold move considering he saw what Aren was doing beforehand and chose to ignore it in favor of blunting the advance to the right. "Itzibaba! Dub'har dubiti!"

Iziz let a brief shriek of high-pitched Jawa laughter out. Aren was so hosed now.

Dejarik was fun and everything, but he was starting to get a bit stir-crazy. The stabilizers and navicomputer had been checked routinely every day for the last nine days. He was running out of work to do, and cleaning his blasters was only going to keep him occupied for so much longer. It was this, or go on a killing spree the instant they hit the ground in port when he felt the need to cut loose. He'd tried playing sabaac with some of the other crew members, but Iziz was fairly sure every single one of them was cheating somehow. That was no fun. Dejarik was a good fallback plan.

[Inigo Montoya]

A Trandoshan stood near the board, looking down at the holographic pieces with an air of detached amusement. He was tall, even for his species, and his green scales seemed particularly dark in the lighting, contrasting with the amber colored heavy jacket he wore, and the matching pair of loose, baggy pants. After Iziz made his move, the lizardman, who was named Khrom in Basic, clicked his tongue sadly.

"I warned you red human...Tiny Jawa has very bold strategy. No time for subtlety." Khrom then turned his attention to Iziz, and shook his head. "As for you Tiny Jawa, you need to be more subtle. Kyrat Dragon could have seen that move."

The game had been going on for a while now and Khrom had moved from indifference, to mild fascination, and finally reached the last stage of spectator status: kibitzing. He had been giving this unwanted advice for the better part of the game now.

[Lord Magtok]

Roger occupies his time assembling and disassembling his firearms. Tibanna gas canister, stock, barrel, grip, trigger guard, hammer, front and rear sights, XCiter chamber, actuating blaster module, stock, grip, trigger, hammer, sights, barrel, tibanna gas canister again, stock...everything is cataloged, examined for carbon scoring, delicately scrubbed clean, lubricated, and reassembled again. The rifle is looking a little worse for wear, and the trigger's sensitivity hasn't been at its best lately, but he can manage. It'll be sitting in his pack for most of this stop, after all. Not a whole lot of need for a war droid out here, he's told.

Speaking of which, his own self-maintenance is just as important, if not more so, than the gun's. Though he can't quite take his every piece apart like he did with the rifle and sidearm, Roger comes damn near as close as he can. Everything that can be removed without deactivation or permanent damage is removed, cataloged, and inspected. He does his best to go over every last detail, but he isn't anywhere near as honest with himself as he is with the gun. Non-standard parts and patchwork repairs go quietly unrecorded, and a damaged bolt is tightened and held in place with a strip of plastoid tape, instead of replaced altogether, as it ought to be.

"Kintan Strider sweeps the Ng'ok in three turns. Iziz wins with a final score of eleven kills to Aren's nine," he predicts, from halfway across the room and no way to view the board.

[Lost_Deep]

"Hey everyone!" Jacqueline says as she enters the main area, "We'll be arriving at Druckenwell shortly, and we can begin. However, I've been told to remind everyone that Druckenwell isn't a near-lawless outer rim planet, and in fact has stricter laws than average. Blaster rifles are going to attract attention, so I'd like to ask people to pack light unless we're expecting trouble. That said, I don't think there's any reason to expect trouble. This is likely going to be an in-and-out; the worst thing I'd need to do is use the tight-band hyperwave communicator we brought along, and then we'll move onto other, more dangerous planets. As long as we don't make trouble, there shouldn't be trouble here."

In the cockpit, the comm comes to life. "Come in YT-2400 freighter, callsign... Void Strider. Welcome to Druckenwell!"

Destiny Pool: 3 white, 5 black
Duty Roll: 36
An ex-fortress world full of businesses. Who will doubt that this will go wonderfully?

[Inigo Montoya]

Khrom snapped to attention when Jacqueline entered the room, then relaxed slightly. She wasn't military, he didn't have to salute to her. Still, best to be respectful. He listened to her directions, and nodded.

"Not to worry miss! Khrom does not even have rifle! Just small pistol. Will hide very well, no worries." He paused, and scratched a scaled callous on his hand. "errr...Why do you need me to go again? If we are being quiet, no need for...well, big boom, yes?"

[Vespe Ratavo]

Aren lifts her head and straightens her posture as Strauss enters the room. Their officer's relatively casual demeanor, however, means she doesn't really bother with saluting, or indeed standing up. Good thing they're not military. "Understood, ma'am." She turns her head to face the trandoshan. "Plan B is always explosives, Khrom. It's called 'aggressive negotiations.'" The trader taps her hand against her holstered blaster, making sure it's still there. There is a jawa around, after all.

Her attention drifts back to the game board, frowning as she notices the mangled body of one of her flankers. "I'm starting to think the little guy sliced the board and turned up the violence. I've never seen that happen to a savrip. With his own arm." Aren raises her hand, her Ng'ok's movement range lighting up in luminous blue, before it advances and delivers a similarly brutal slashing to one of Iziz' pieces. "Anyway, I prefer more predictable games. Like sabacc, or galactic economics. Roger, feel free to tell me the odds when I'm playing those."

[Artemis97]

In the cockpit, Eyla'dan looks over at the pilot. "What's got you so on edge?" She asks, curious considering how, relatively, safe this world was.

[Lord Magtok]

"Galactic economics. A strange game. The only winning move is not to play," Roger muses, removing the barrel from his rifle in order to fit it into the bag. He'll leave the pistol, grenades, and combat webbing behind, but the rifle isn't going anywhere. Even if he has to assemble it in the middle of a deadly firefight, he's not about to go without his most valuable belonging. Certainly not when the pilot's packing that ion pistol.

[blackouttwo]

"I'ya mutippa. Shun'gola'mi nobuska. Iyam ki'toni." Iziz hops off his chair, setting the dejarik board to save his and Aren's progress.

They would finish their epic strategic struggle later. Business time.

Without another word, the little Jawa moves off to his quarters to collect his belongings. Fusion cutter, backpack for scrap he finds interesting, slicer gear (hidden carefully in said backpack), military belt, concealment holster for a light blaster pistol, said light blaster pistol, and a few stimpacks hidden in the backpack. With any luck he'd pass for an itinerant technician.

As he came back, fully geared up and ready to roll, he looked like any other Jawa with a backpack. Tools and a hidden face that might have a sleazy smile as he tries to sell you some used droids. Nope. No career criminals or rampaging psychopaths here. Just a normal Jawa, doing normal Jawa things. Utinni!

[Darkcomet]

After your usual standard-protocol reply on the comm, our twitchy pilot friend decides to answer the question, though she deliberately omits some details. "Don't trust this bunch at a fortress planet, personally. Never liked fortress worlds anyway. I prefer having an easy escape route. Or preferably several." All true.

[Lost_Deep]

"It's better safe than sorry," Jacqueline replies. That's all that needs to be said, "If something goes wrong, I want to be ready."

The Void Strider swoops over the planet. Those in the cockpit can see parts of the planetary shield grid, and a network of AA guns. However, they all seem to be powered down. You are directed to a large building with hangers suitable for your ship size, and with directions from control you slide into place easily.

"M-3PO and I will poke around," Jacqueline says, "Aren, find a job for us. The rest of you, stay out of trouble, but if you want to go shopping now is the time. Druckenwell is a veritable business hub, you'll likely be able to find what you want here somewhere."

[Vespe Ratavo]

Aren rises from the dejarik table, stretching her arms above her head. Her lips spread in a soft smirk, feeling just a little prideful at being the only one given a specific order. Time to make some money. "Care to join me, Khrom?" She stepped toward the boarding ramp, turning back to face him. "We'll hit the job boards, find a news relay, sit in the closest cantina and see how many people assume we're up to no good."

[Artemis97]

"Fair enough." Eyla'dan agrees, getting up from her seat. "I'm only bringing my knuckle dusters in my bag just in case someone thinks they can man-handle me. Also planning to stay away from our little friend, even if he leaves that big gun of his here. Oh! And since this is probably the last civilized world we'll see in a while, I am going dress shopping." The Twi'lek decides as she steps through the cockpit door. "You should come with me!" She calls back as she leaves.

Eyla'dan also had a knife strapped to the inside of her thigh, but that was her little secret.

Walking through the common area of the ship, she smiles at her crewmates and, catching the tail end of the conversation, asks "Want any more company, Aren?" The Twi'lek knew she was good for catching people's attention.

[Inigo Montoya]

Khrom looks at Aren carefully, then nods. "...I suppose. As long we checking mining supply. Want to compare prices of detanite." The Trandoshan pauses for a moment then smacks his head, a very human gesture he picked up somewhere.

"Ah yes! One thing first. Need to grab something." He disappears into the bowels of the ship for a moment, before returning with a fusion cutter. He is attempting to find a hiding place for it. "Never leave ship without it. Never know when you need to cut hole in stormtrooper."

[Lord Magtok]

"Argent? The Jawa may require a minder. One that won't be mistaken for the Jawa's property," Roger points out, stressing the last word with obvious distaste. Really though, he's more concerned about the pilot than the Jawa. The little guy isn't the one who's been going around with an ion pistol, after all. Better to keep the both of them close, so neither can slip away and start plotting something fiendish behind his back.

[Vespe Ratavo]

Aren looks up as Eyla'dan enters the room, smiling brightly and nodding. "Certainly! The more the merrier." She pauses for a moment, considering her words. "...As long as the 'more' are well-behaved. And not likely to shoot potential clients. Unless they shoot first, I guess. Anyways, let's go."

The boarding ramp opens with a pneumatic hiss, and Aren exits the Void Strider, looking around for any customs people who might want to have a little chat or get paid. If there aren't any, she wanders out into the city, looking for the commercial district. A cantina with a HoloNet News relay would be ideal. Have a drink and read those classified ads.

[Artemis97]

"You don't have to worry about me." The Twi'lek assures her. "I don't even own a gun!" Of course she knows full well she's not the one Aren's worried about.

[Darkcomet]

Argent scowls as she exits the cockpit. "Yeah, I guess he might, huh." She's not keeping too much with her, following all the rules for a spaceport like this. Which, of course, means no ion blaster, but she is at least keeping the comlink in case those two get up to anything. "Maybe I'll pretend to be an antique collector, and the jawa's my repair man! Brilliant cover."

Needless to say, her voice just drips with sarcasm.

[Lost_Deep]

There is an officer waiting in the spaceport, but Jacqueline immediately rushes over to him and pays the berth fee. Seems like the New Republic will be paying for your stay. And a good thing, too. This is an imperialrepublic-class spaceport, the berth fee here may be prohibitively expensive.

That said, this is a republic-class spaceport, so if you want something, it's likely here somewhere. The main issue is the customs checkpoint between you people and all of the good stuff.

However, it's nice of them to post the rules outside of the customs checkpoint.

Anything (R)estricted, of course, is going to get you in trouble, straight away. There's also rules against 'hazardous military or industrial hardware,' 'concealed weaponry of any sort,' and 'unlicensed weaponry.' That said, these are not zero-tolerance rules, and you do have licenses for blasters up to sporting blasters. For that matter, the search seems to rely on weapon-finders, which may be a blessing or a curse.

((If you want to smuggle things through customs, roll Stealth against a difficulty 2 perception with one setback dice. If something would add a setback dice to the perception check, it adds a boost dice here due to the reversal. If any of you get caught, we'll deal with that next round.))

Even just inside the spaceport there's a lot of options for things to do, and once you leave it the options only increase. The stores on this planet carry more than most middle rim worlds, thanks to the trade lane and the mercantile nature of the planet, and as a result you should be able to find most normal equipment. In addition, you are docked in a republic-class spaceport! If you want to buy modifications for your ship, they might even be cheap and speedy!

((On table 5-1, difficulty to find something based on rarity, treat the item you're looking for as one rarity lower. Assume you don't need to roll to get anything average or below.))

[Vespe Ratavo]

For about half a second, Aren considers turning around and putting her blaster back in the ship, not wanting to raise the ire of a fortress world. Then she walks straight ahead, pulls out her blaster (holding it by the barrel, of course), and gently places it on the desk of whoever's manning this post. "Aren Rand, Void Strider. One Drearian Defense model BF-2 'Bantha Fodder' sporting blaster to declare." She puts on her best smile, and that, at least, is genuine. She's smiling because there's no way in Mustafar that this official is going to be able to check the existence of a sporting blaster model from the Corporate Sector that may or may not actually exist. Besides, the line between "light" and "regular" pistols is so blurry these days.

Rolling Deception. I'll leave this one to you, Lost, and see where that gets me.

Dice Pool:
http://i.imgur.com/N72HO8z.jpg
1 Yellow, 2 Green.

Applicable Talents:
Convincing Demeanor 1 - Remove [Black Die] per rank of Convincing Demeanor from Deception or Skullduggery checks.
Smooth Talker 1 - When making checks with Deception, spend [Triumph] to gain additional [Successes] equal to ranks in Smooth Talker.

[Inigo Montoya]

Khrom waits patiently in line behind Aren. As he waits, he continues his mental tally of his jagannath points. Before he can really get into the meat of them, however his turn at the counter arrives. He looks down at the person operating it and gives them his best smile. If they are any species that was not an alpha predator on their home planet, it won't appear to be a very comforting smile.

"Hello! I am engineer! I have two things to show! Fusion cutter and small sports blaster! That not problem, is it?"
He brings out the smile again. He honestly thinks it's comforting.

[blackouttwo]

Iziz isn't too far behind Aren, openly displaying his blaster pistol and silently passing under the weapon-scanner without comment. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iISxAhvv3ts) The concealed holster beneath his heavy clothing, on the other hand, is going unmentioned. Remaining perfectly silent, the Jawa waves around his fusion cutter in a manner that could be vaguely construed as 'hey, I'll patch up your speeder for five credits, pal. No? Alright, fine. Just lemme through.'

Behind the pitch blackness of the Jawa's visage, anyone who knew the Jawa personally would immediately be able to tell that he was thinking, in much more foul terminology, 'fall for it, fall for it, fall for it, fall for it, fall for it you stupid bastards, fall for it.'

After getting extensive help puzzling the damn dice mechanics out, I'ma rollin' not to smuggle the blaster pistol in...but the concealment holster with which to hide the (totally legal) blaster once he's past customs.

Difficulty Dice: [roll0]

Bonus Dice: [roll1]

Ability Dice: [roll2]

Proficiency Dice: [roll3]


HERE GOES EVERYTHING

[Lord Magtok]

No fancy tricks with the droid, Roger just takes care to pass through the scanner at precisely the same time that his bag does. It's sure to go off, but maybe he'll get waved past. It was obviously just a false positive, what with him being a droid and all, and not a gun. He's clearly not the one you're looking for; move along.

[Artemis97]

Eyla'dan saunters through the scanner, smiling at the guards. It was an old habit, to distract and tease with her every movement, however the guards weren't the issue at the moment. Scanners don't get distracted.

Stealth Check


[roll1d8

[Lost_Deep]

Aren leads, and doesn't have any trouble getting through. The customs man doesn't even blink at the pistol. It's just a blaster, it's not even a big blaster, he doesn't care.

XXNO CONTESTXX

Krom, and then Iziz get through as well. Iziz gets an odd look, and the guy manning the scanner doesn't seem eager to look too closely.

It looks like that scanner is out of date, and probably poorly grounded. Unusual for a fortress world, to be sure.

Roger, however, is noticed.

"Wait, is that a B1? What the-"

"Dude, you're right. Isn't-I thought that was illegal?"

"No, it's illegal to manufacture battle droids. If it's been around since the clone wars, it's just repurposed. I heard that on some planet out in the outer rim the separatists just left a whole lot of droids, and so the colonists out there just re-programmed them to be like the planetary militia."

"Man, lucky the droid wound up with someone willing to pay for the patch jobs, B1s are supposed to be about as durable as cheap plast."

The people at the customs station will distinctly remember Roger.

Eyla'dan's saunter gets her through fine, and she may catch one of the guards try to hide a smile as his eyes follow her out.

The people at the customs station will remember Eyla'dan

Elena, Jacqueline, and M-3PO have no trouble. Jacqueline and M-3PO immediately head off for investigating, leaving the others to do as they wish.

[blackouttwo]

Once Iziz is through (and out of sight), he slips the blaster into his clothing, and the concealed holster beneath it.

Time to go to work.

He immediately decides to seek out a cantina.

Why a cantina? Well, the criminal element has a few commonplace traditions galaxywide: Crimelords have fancy palaces and mansions with everything from slaves to private mercenary armies, you don't make the Kessel Run in less than twelve parsecs, and you can find work from the disreputable elements of society at the local cantina. It's just the order of things - it's the RULE.

Iziz quickly jabbers to the rest of the group about trying to find a decent place for a drink, and turns to leave so he can go do precisely that. They're more than welcome to come along if they want. Truth of the matter is, Iziz is hoping they do. If a deal goes bad, he'll want backup from his compatriots. 'Specially the droid. Extra meat-shields would help, too.



Proficiency Dice

[roll0]

Ability Dice

[roll1]

[roll2]

[roll3]

Difficulty Dice

[roll4]

[roll5]

[Lost_Deep]

Iziz (and anyone who goes with him) will not find the local underworld bar. There are a few sleazy bars, but none that have that feeling of scum and villainy that Iziz knows so well. However, he does get a few tips on how to find the black market. It's less of a place and more of a network on this planet, but if Iziz looks he may be able to find it. In particular, there is word of... 'military surplus'.

((Iziz may add a boost dice to a roll to access the black market.))

[Lord Magtok]

"Question my durability...plasteel is significantly less fragile than human bone. I ought to demonstrate on our way back."

Roger would scowl if he had any sort of facial features he could manipulate. His diminutive companion is already looking for trouble, isn't he? They passed at least six bars now, yet none of them seemed to meet the hooded rodent's specifications. This military surplus angle sounds interesting, though. Which military, and which war? It'd probably be too much to expect B1 parts here, given the age and fragility of such things, along with the Empire's purges of anything and everything even remotely Separatist years ago, but life (or some artificial facsimile of it) can surprise you sometimes, and the right materials could even be right around the corner.

[Artemis97]

"Oh, Rodger, you shouldn't listen to those tiny headed guards." Eyla'dan advises. "You are clearly quite durable to still be here after being through so much." Why was the Twi'lek tagging along with these two? Well, the Jawa would probably need someone who spoke Basic, or at least could smooth things over. And while Rodger spoke Basic just fine, who knows what kind of anti-droid sentiment still lingered around.

"Besides, if you break their arms, we won't be able to get back on the ship and they'll probably find a way to reduce you to slag."

[Lost_Deep]

For those who are not following the Jawa, the wonder of the capitol of all Druckenwell is open to them. Sure, there's a few walls at some points, and most public buildings have unusually many cameras, but there's plenty to find here!

The city, though it's made of rather unimaginative greys, is bustling, and the air is oddly clean. Stores of all sorts are around, and repulsercraft traffic is thick. Pedestrians can walk most anywhere eventually, but the public transit system seems to be both effective and affordable. There isn't much in terms of sights to see, however tourist pamphlets available for free imply otherwise. All said and done, this is a huge, bustling, and successful city. Dining, shopping, it's all here.

(Except, apparently, for the crime, as Iziz is finding out.)

Really, the spaceport is one of the most notable buildings in the city. It's directly connected to a shopping mall, meaning that spacers can blow their spending money without ever having to go outdoors or even come into contact with natural light. The berth itself is horizontal landing instead of vertical: you fly into a hanger-like area instead of moving down onto a pad from above. For the mechanically-inclined, each berth is set up with a system that makes maintenance or modification easy and fast.

Outside of the city is less impressive. The apparent preferred method of traveling between cities are swoopbuses, and those are more expensive than the in-city transit. The nearby wilderness is forest that almost immediately gives way to a swamp, the city seemingly built on the one bit of high ground around here.

[Inigo Montoya]

Khrom looked around, and snorted slightly. The planet had looked like a typical forest planet form orbit, but now that he got here, he was disappointed to see it was mainly swampland. Not a lot of mining to be done, so not a lot of places to buy explosives. Still, maybe there was some mining done back in the Imperial days. He followed behind Aren, racking his brain, trying to recall if he had heard of this planet before in any of his mission briefings with the Rebellion.

[Vespe Ratavo]

Aren was expecting a "Fortress World" to be more militant - mandatory parades every day, something like that. Maybe they had already had one today? Actually, this place reminded her an awful lot of the Corporate Sector: gray, efficient, profitable. Profitable for the people running it, certainly, but also for an independent agent with the right skills. Back in the Corporate Sector, everyday goods could end up exorbitantly priced for any number of reasons - taxes, tariffs, uncontested monopolies, some executive having a bad day - which meant a good trader could conveniently sidestep all those and sell directly to the consumer for massive profit.

Aren goes to the spaceport-mall and looks for the blandest, cleanest, most inoffensive-looking general store she can find. There, she checks if any everyday products are exceptionally over- or under-priced, based on what she knows about the Mid Rim economy, and accounting for the typical tourist-gouging.

After that, she surveys the spaceport cantinas, looking for the one that looks like the preferred hangout for professional galactic travelers. A motley crew of aliens in flight suits would be a good sign. If it's got a terminal to watch or read the news on, all the better.

Would Knowledge (Outer Rim) be applicable here? Maybe Negotiation as a measure of business sense, for price checking?

Knowledge (Outer Rim): Three green dice
Negotiation: Two green dice, one yellow die

[Lost_Deep]

Due to this planet's location in the mid rim, Knowledge (Outer Rim) will work for planetary knowledge.

Easy Knowledge (Outer Rim) check.
Total: 3 Advantages.
And that's it. You didn't even roll any failures or successes.

Khron has only heard the basics. This was always a big business planet, and then it was a fortress world, and now it's trying to desperately pedal away from that, trying to re-claim its title as a place for business and pretend it never became a fortress world at all!
Khron does notice a heavy duty hardware store. While it won't carry the kind of hardware he wants, someone in there might know where to go to find that kind of thing.

This would actually be a pair of Knowledge (Education) checks. That said, there's no difference between your Knowledge (outer rim) and knowledge (education), according to your sheet you have intelligence 2 and no ranks in either skill.

Price gagueing, easy Knowledge (Education): 2 failures, 3 advantages
Spacer bar finding Knowledge (Education): 1 success, 1 advantage

Given the local economic situation-wait, you don't know the local economic situation. You been here for maybe an hour? The prices are high, but only normally so, as opposed to cripplingly so. You have no idea why.

However, you do know some about this planet. Druckenwell is a place for businesses to meet and negotiate, and in fact rumor has it that the Empire came here a few times to discuss contracts. You spot a large office of Mandal Motors; probably at least a sector center if not one of this entire area of space.

As for finding THE local spacer bar, you find it nearby. You overhear a pair of spacers mentioning that the import and export customs are startlingly loose...

[Darkcomet]

Argent apparently decides to tag along with the merchant and the lizardman here, since that makes it all a nice 3/3 split. She doesn't have much to comment on, instead just letting her mind wander to random personal interests. Like ancient legends.

Going to roll Knowledge Lore here. Intellect 2, one rank in lore. See if I happen to know any ancient history or legends about this place or anything.

[Lost_Deep]

XNO CONTESTX

Druckenwell doesn't have any notable ancient history, nor any legends. It was first inhabited relatively recently, likely only within a few hundred years, and really has never seen events notable on a galactic scale.

[Inigo Montoya]

Khrom doesn't honestly remember much about the briefings here. There was never a major mission. It was all just 'stay away, it's a fortress'. And now they are trying to pretend they didn't do that? Khrom snorts out loud, a trifle annoyed with the hypocrisy of it all. He never pretended he was something he was not. Speaking of which...

"So. Tiny Pilot, Red Human. I have problem." He's speaking quietly, so they can't be overheard. "I need to restock supply of explosives. I can make. Is all legal, but mixed in right way, makes big hole in AT-AT. But, Trandoshans, they can not buy large quantities of ingredients. Makes people nervous, call security. But tiny humans? No problems. I pay you back, of course. But...can you see how much it would be?"

[blackouttwo]

Needless to say, Iziz is kind of fuming at this point.

No major hubs of criminal activity.

No bastions of corruption.

No easily-bribed law-enforcement.

No easy-to-find criminal 'gateways.'

This place sucks.

He vocalizes his displeasure in a bit of jabbered Jawaese, and resumes his search after his half of the team leave their eighth cantina of the day. Thankfully some digging turned a few things up, not the least of which were possible leads on the black market. 'Military surplus' meant possible business. Smuggling? Hits? A little extra muscle for a drop? Odd-jobs to get some new gear were always welcome, so if someone was offering mil-spec weaponry on the sly in exchange for a couple people disappearing (or something, he'd need to make sure the rest of the group didn't hose him on this), then he could easily use or sell the gear. Force knows the ship could use a few more heavy weapons lying around.

So it was with this in mind, Iziz 'led' the way for Roger and Eyla. They have a possible meeting to get to. Down one back-alley, the door on the left.

The Jawa keeps his hand near the concealed pistol he's carrying as he enters, and motions for Eyla and the droid to follow. Time to do some business.

[Lord Magtok]

"Besides, if you break their arms, we won't be able to get back on the ship and they'll probably find a way to reduce you to slag."

"This is true," Roger concedes, adjusting his bag and the disassembled rifle inside as they approach the meeting place. He's just a tad anxious about this meeting. Ties to the Black Sun doesn't get one nearly as far as it did back in the day, but you wouldn't know it from the way the cocksure little rodent talked. Knowing from experience that the sort of scum they're meeting with is the kind that would just as soon flash you in the back with an ion gun and sell you for scrap as look at you, Roger removes his backpack from his shoulders and dangles it from one arm. He'd still need to assemble the gun in a hurry if things got bad, but chances are good he'd have the loudest, most threatening firearm in the room, given local restrictions.

"Try not to cause too much trouble, Iziz. We only have two blasters, and three bodies to guard them with."

[Lost_Deep]

The Dark Half of the Party

Within, a man wearing a face-covering mask is sitting behind a counter.

"Well... this is new. I knew word had been spreading off-planet, but I didn't expect such visitors so soon. I presume you're here for some... hardware. The empire left a lot of military surplus on our planet, and there's enough prudent businessmen in place of power to see that there's some gain to be made off of that. We have an array of supplies, and with the proper clearance we can even get them to you. No one will be the wiser."

[blackouttwo]

Mask. Offering hardware. Acting all mysterious and ominous. Mneh mneh mneh.

Poser.

Iziz jabbers a bit in Jawa Trade Language, somewhat banking on the guy having even a passing familiarity with it. Barring translation from the Twi'lek or Roger, the Jawa won't be able to tell the guy that they're not here to buy and are, in fact, looking for some kind of paying work. Because work equals credits, and credits equals buying stuff! If this doesn't pan out, the Jawa's going to have to resort to dumpster-diving. Like his ancestors before him and all of the backwater-dwelling savages back on Tatooine. Completely unacceptable.

[Darkcomet]

[The...2/3 Self-Interested Half of the Party?]

Argent frowns. "I don't think I like the idea of flying around in a ship full of AT-AT killing explosives...anything that breaks one of those things will probably blow us to bits too if something goes wrong or the wrong part of the ship gets shot." She really doesn't want to be piloting a bomb freighter, it seems. Not that one can blame her for that.

[Artemis97]

Eyla'dan translates for Iziz, loosely, leaving out anything insulting and adding a small coating of sugar. As well as adding that "I'd love to see your stock of wares. Especially any parts for droids." She adds, nodding to Roger.

[Lost_Deep]

Dark Half of the Party

"I have weapons and explosives available. Rifles, even some heavy rifles. You'll have to pay through the nose to get them, but the option is there. As for work? I'm afraid you're not likely to find a lot of illicit work on-planet. Unless you have the skill and guts to break into a military compound, hah! I've heard tell that smuggling has started to pick up, but I'm not the man to speak to about that."

He's hesitant to go into detail on this, and instead directs your attention back to his wares.

Weapons, armor, and equipment of a (R)eprehensible nature is available. The prices he cites are, for such black market goods, good. Only 2.5 times the market price! Most military hardware is 3 to 4 times. Thankfully, he's willing to negotiate.

[Artemis97]

Eyla'dan makes a mental note to tell Khrom about the explosives, he'd probably be interested in that, despite the high price. "I have a friend who might be interested in those explosives." The Twi'lek says, as a way of a teaser offering. "And, were we interested in such activity, who would we talk to about a smuggling job?"

She also takes the time to browse for a small blaster for herself, though it would probably be too overpriced for her to afford with what few credits she had.

"Iziz, is there anything specific you were looking for?" She asks the Jawa.

[Vespe Ratavo]

"He said mixed in the right way," Aren says in response. "Lots of things are perfectly safe until you mix them. Like Corellians, and Corellian whiskey. Anyways, I'm sure there are plenty of other things on the ship that will kill us first." She turns her attention to the spacers she overheard, saying something awfully enticing about imports and exports. "I'd be happy to check in on explosives. Let's get an advance first, though. Stick close. Let's get some drinks and talk about how great the Void Strider is. Oh, and Argent, tell us about the best stunt you've done in a ship and I'll say you're full of Hutt spit. If this doesn't get us a job, I don't know what will." She heads for the cantina at a brisk walk, looking to get a booth and a suitable (http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Ardees) beverage. (http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Hot_chocolate)

[Inigo Montoya]

Khrom looks at Aren.
"You...want me to be strong, silent alien muscle, yes? I have seen this holovid before." Khrom laughs slightly.
"I make bet with you red human. If your plan really works, I pay you fifty credits? Deal?" The lizardman follows the merchant, picking a booth made specifically for species with tails.

[Lord Magtok]

The Cooler Half of the Party

"How secure is this military installation?" Roger interjects. He's not serious, is he? I mean, he remembers that they're working for the New Republic and that none of the people here are anywhere near as qualified for shooting one's way in and out of a fortified government compound as he is, right?

[Darkcomet]

"And those other things might use the bombs to do it..." Argent mutters, thinking of the battle droid and the piratical jawa. She doesn't object or really comment otherwise as she follows along.

Bombs are dangerous, kids.

[blackouttwo]

>implying shooting your way into a fortified outpost is the best option

>implying one shouldn't be as sneaky as possible and only resort to shooting your way OUT when the escape plan goes belly-up like a goldie (http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Goldie) with a filthy tank

>implying

Years and years of surfing the darker parts of the Holonet in his downtime between heists, thefts and for-profit massacres gave Iziz a habit of being fairly vitriolic when it wasn't called for.

This is not one such occasion.

He jerks his little Jawa head around to look at Roger and then just...tilts his head to one side in confusion.

Suffice it to say, this is atypical for the Jawa.

The Jawa then proceeds to make a few vague hand motions and jabber slightly in the language of his people, inquiring as to Roger's intended course of action while making suggestions to the effect of scoping the place out ahead of their heist-slash-theft-in-the-making.

If Roger had seriously proposed shooting their way in, he'd have let out a positively high-pitched stream of nasty, ill-intentioned Jawa speech directed at the battle droid. The exact insults and words used in such an event cannot be repeated or transcribed in this account of events due to the sheer level of impoliteness involved, but implications of Roger's construction process, factory of origin, friends, favored past-times, and intelligence all being 'non-standard' in some fashion are often made. He would then have proceeded to present what he would consider a far superior plan of action, regardless of whether or not it would actually work.

While he speaks to Roger, he casts a quick glance in the general direction of all of the hardware presented, and specifically looks for weapon modifications; anything he can deck his heavy blaster out with. They might be needing tricked-out weapons, and sooner than they think.

[Lost_Deep]

Black Market

"I was being facetious. Pfft, if you people could break into a military installation built for a fortress planet, you wouldn't be needing weapons from my store. I couldn't afford that nonsense. In any case, do you want to buy or sell? If not, I don't think we have anything to go over."

Hm, the marketeer is being tight-lipped. Iziz will notice most things available are things that would be available from most outer rim arms stores, if he wants the good stuff, he may have to ask.

[Artemis97]

Black Martket

"We are certainly not attacking a military installation." Eyla'dan insists, for clarity's sake. "However, I think my Jawa friend might want something, and you never answered me about the droid parts or that smuggling job." The Twi'lek points out, frowning a bit at the merchant.

[blackouttwo]

Iziz observed the discussion closely, and then turned his little Jawa gaze back at all that hardware. Military base was off the menu. Even if they could be sneaky about it. He decided to take a closer look at that hardware. Namely by walking up to it for a closer inspection. This would, of course, force the owner of this fine little establishment to keep a closer eye on him, thus leaving him distracted for the sake of Eyla negotiating with him.

Jawa logic, ladies and gentlemen.