Episode 1.0 - The Festival of Great Trade

The Twi'lek woman flipped one of her lekku back over her shoulder and gave Rexi a measuring look. After several seconds she appeared to make up her mind and said, "You can call me Nyree. And yes, I prefer to keep others at a disadvantage." She grinned wickedly and cast a quick glance over at Lors, who was speaking to the bartender, "Even those I'm contracted to."

Lors finished talking with the bartender and made his way back to the table. "So, are we ready to play? The drinks will be along in a moment, I ordered a nice local ale."

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Callista's aim is true, and her timing is good. The can strikes the camera right as it starts to turn aside. Anyone who reviewed the security footage later wouldn't see anything other than a can knocking the camera out of alignment. The path to the lift is now clear, and none of the few personnel on the ground floor have paid her any attention.

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When Wuc'vulog talks to the thugs they nod politely and laugh at the story of the flaming rodents.

"Yah, I know a guy what would pull that. Only, he'd sell 'em on a stick and light 'em up after you buy one. Said they tasted better when crisped up fresh, y'know!" One offered with a chuckle.

(OOC: If you want to distract and divert them, try rolling a charm check with 2 Yellow, 1 Green, and 2 Purple.)

(OOC: Sabacc rules are given in the free Under a Black Sun adventure, on page 27. Not particularly mobile friendly.)

"Oh, I'm definitely playing," Nyree winked at Rexi before she shot a look of disdain at Lors, "If only to supplement my paycheck."

"Then I think that makes three of us Rexi. What stakes do you want to play for? Ten credits a hand? Twenty credits a hand?" Lors' lekku twitched with anticipation. These weren't high stakes, but some players would raise stakes or go double-or-nothing when they were in the hole.

When Callista walks out of the lift the first thing she notices is the 15 meter hallway leading to a security desk beside a blast door. A bored-looking, middle-aged female Zabrak is seated behind the desk in a navy blue uniform. A single orange stripe runs down the left arm, and a shoulder patch is on the right shoulder. Several moments after the lift doors opened she lowered the datapad she was reading and set it on the desk, then her eyes flick to the lift. The light is dim, but the guard is illuminated by a display built into her desk.

In addition to the hallway leading to the guard desk, there are two other halls branching out perpendicularly. To the west seem to be offices, to the east seem to be conference rooms. Down the main hallway to the blast door there are no other doors.

(OOC: Roll stealth VS 2 difficulty dice to avoid being seen. )

Dr Eliasan spent several minutes discussing ships with Pepra, and the results of his search. She acknowledged Khan's first comm message and continued her discussion. As she did so she marked the ships on her own datapad for later. Then Pepra's datapad showed an alert. A silent alarm had been triggered somewhere in the systems they were accessing. Rather than take the risk, Eliasan initiated a security wipe on the datapad, wiped it clean of fingerprints, and dropped it down a disposal chute.

Then the comm chimed again.

"We hit a small complication and I'll need to finish something on our way to the spaceport. Keep alert, and you might want to be ready for anything. I'll tell you more in person, I don't know how secure our comms are."

With that Dr Eliasan grabbed the cases she had prepared, and she and Pepra hurried out the back to the speeder. She had Pepra begin loading the speeder while she brought Khan up to speed.

"Valoris, we have the information we need but Pepra tripped an alarm of some kind. Whoever might be paying attention could know what ships we're looking for. I'll have to finish my job posting and message the ships while we're on our way. Lets go."

She hopped into the copilot's seat of the speeder and strapped herself in. Pepra settled himself in the back seat with the cases. Once in motion Eliasan started typing furiously on her datapad--time was of the essence, and she started to sweat.

Wuc'vulog made good conversation but the thugs continued on in spite of his efforts. "You one of the crewmates of the Turtle? Or are you from one of the other ships here? Boss Tarr sent us to unload our latest cargo shipment." The thug who spoke appeared to be the leader.

(OOC: Unless you're going to try something else, they arrive at the ship.)

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The Turtle receives a a private job posting with a direct invitation from a Dr Eliasan. She wishes to travel to the Tapani Sector, departure as soon as possible, in time for a medical conference in 5 weeks. The job lists her and 2 assistants as passengers, some 20 kilos of cargo, and a priority tag. The job posting lists the offered price at 14k credits if on time, 17k credits if early by 4 days.

"Very well, ten credits a hand it is. Nyree, will you join us, or are you just going to watch?" Lors asked with a slight twitch of his lekku. The other two Twi'leks with Tarr also pull up their seats to take positions around the table.

"Oh, I'm playing," she said, "deal me in."

A human barmaid arrived just after Tarr signaled for Rexi to deal, and distributed ales to the party.

(OOC: It's your choice to cheat or not, but I'm assuming you wouldn't be so obvious on the first hand. Roll Cool + 1 Force Die vs 2 difficulty, plus any bonuses you can bring to bear.)

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The Zabrak guard doesn't notice Callista, but also doesn't appear that surprised that the lift was triggered. She rolled her eyes and muttered something about "the engineers couldn't look at that for another few days." With a wave of her badge over a security strip she secured her terminal, then set her datapad back on the desk. She walked down the corridor toward the lift and headed for the conference rooms in the eastern hall. Just after the first set of doors she turned off into the restrooms.

The security desk is cluttered. A brief glance reveals someone's misplaced security card sticking out from under a stack of empty cups. The blast doors open to reveal a sophisticated workshop. There is a bin with credit chits sitting next to a machine with a chit slot in it. On the other side of the room there's a dais with an reclining chair that has heavy restraints. The medical equipment around it looks slightly malicious, and a deactivated surgical droid is leaned against the wall. Heavy shelving lines the back wall. The shelves aren't large, but are sturdy and whatever is on them is draped in a silver cloth that conceals what the device is.

There is a security console inside capable of closing the door, and monitoring any security cameras set up outside.

(OOC: If you want to figure the machines out, it'll be Knowledge: Underworld vss 2 difficulty, plus any searching you might want to do at the same difficulty.)

(OOC: We only established that she was trying to empty Tarr's safe. If you make a perception or vigilance roll versus 3 difficulty you can search-for/notice it. However, if she looks under the cloth she'll figure out that this is an illegal cyber facility (among other things) and find some expensive cybernetic limbs. That'd be obvious if she looks under the cloth, but it depends on how curious she is. Otherwise, go ahead and make the rest up.)

As Valoris takes off in the speeder, another unmarked speeder takes to the air and begins following at a medium distance.

((OOC: Valoris Khan, roll Piloting (Planetary) with 3 green, 2 purple, and 2 black dice. Green represents your relevant attribute with 0 levels of training, 2 purple is average difficulty for flying to the spaceport, and 2 black setback dice for trying to hurry during an extremely crowded event. If you wish to outrun or engage the speeder we need to roll for initiative.)

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Callista finds the safe built into the wall near the strange credit-chit machine. The safe itself is disguised as part of a computer terminal that looks like it controls the machine, or perhaps is supposed to look that way. The face plate for the keypad flips outward to reveal mechanical tumblers and levers.

((OOC: Skulduggery to lockpick is Hard (3) difficulty with 1 setback due to the previous threat; you still have LP and 1 boost die you haven't used yet.))

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The cards mistreated Rexi initially, then flipped at the last second to enable him to break-even. However Nyree was unlucky and lost the first hand to Tarr, who neatly cleaned out the other players on this hand.

"So Rexi, you seem to have had a little trouble this go around. I don't remember you playing this conservatively back on Lothal. I seem to remember you ... out for the big stakes." Tarr grinned. "Are you down on your luck, or just bored enough to humor me?"

Nyree impatiently jabs at the autodealer and triggers a new hand. "I never humor you, Tarr," she bristled.

((OOC: Same rolls, unless you spend an LP to upgrade.)