The Dead Drop

As you approach the Dead Drop, it's in the last few minutes of the ride that you notice the change in scenery, as illuminated by the rays of a setting Bonadan sun. First, traffic thins out, then becomes sparse, eventually becoming almost non-existent. The off-white, tan, and light grey buildings, the streets, everything about the infrastructure around you become more dilapidated as you get closer to your destination, until finally you're hovering along the broken fragments of what was once a road. You skirt around vehicles abandoned in the streets, in various states of wreckage or disrepair. Traffic signals hang lifelessly from their fixtures. Red Bonadan sand completely fills in the cracks and potholes, piling meters high against walls in spots, spilling out of buildings, some of them completely flooded with sand. Looking above, you notice that air traffic, in all directions, completely circumvents the neighborhood.

The streets aren't completely lifeless, however, as you notice the occasional cantina and neighborhood shop still open for business, bodegas run by shady merchants scattered here and there. Sentient species of all kinds dot the streets, and it's not difficult to spot the criminal elements either. Narcotics dealers stand on their corners, looking a little too vigilant to simply be loitering. Prostitutes, obvious in their dress and behavior toward you as you pass by, tend to congregate in small groups closer to the cantinas, ready for the impending nightlife. As you descend from the top of a sand dune you see a plaza, long dry fountains and crumbling statues surrounding what you're certain is a slave auction, with a variety of manacled, naked beings, mostly Twi'leks, in line for their turn on the block, a few dozen bidders waiting for the chance to own their first slave, or expand their stable.

Finally, you see it, nestled in an open space between buildings, at the corner of a crumbling intersection: a single-story, tan colored building, about the size of a corner store, no windows, a couple dozen vehicles parked outside. The plascrete walls holding it up look solid, as if they were actually repaired when necessary, in contrast to most of the neighborhood's general state of decay. A flat roof rests on top, and although there is no signage to be seen, you're sure you've arrived at the Dead Drop, based on the navcomputer's directions. Erasing any doubt of the navcomputer's accuracy, you immediately come to understand the origins of the cantina's moniker as you look for a parking spot, your attention drawn away from the three hookers working the cantina front door.

About 20 meters beyond the rear of the cantina, the ground drops off sharply at a cliff, at the edge of a small canyon of sorts. Looking across, you estimate it to be about a kilometer wide, and perhaps two kilometers long in either direction from your current location. A singular bridge a couple of city blocks away stretches across the width of the chasm, a large central tower rising through and above the bridge itself, with smaller support structures still standing the test of time. Although the setting Bonadan sun leaves much of it in shadow at this time of day, you see a variety of buildings and varying support structures, cascading down the walls of the canyon in terraces that encroach further inwards as they near the canyon floor, perhaps 150 meters down.

Finally, you find an open spot as Lexi parks the ECUL right up against the corner of the Dead Drop's rear wall, on the canyon side. A shifty looking Bothan dressed in a hooded robe leans up against the wall near the cantina's back door. He pulls off his breath mask for a moment to take a drag from his death stick. Holding the smoke in for a moment, he exhales, then holds the breath mask to his face again as he turns to look in your direction, eying you through tinted goggles.

Welcome to the Dead Drop.

Although the ECUL didn't seem to have any problems after the chase, and the engine still sounded fine, Hawke is understandably not taking any chances. As the squad preps and takes stock of the situation, he gives the speeder a walk around inspection, then pops the hood for a quick look. Satisfied that their transportation has only suffered additional kilometers on the odometer, he rejoins the discussion.

As you loiter by the rear corner of the Dead Drop, on the canyon-side, the dying rays of the Bothan sun painting the canyon walls a rusty orange hue, you notice one of the prostitutes you saw working the front door step out from around the far corner. Dressed in a black two-piece outfit that leaves little to the imagination, she's an extremely attractive Twi'lek, especially helped along on Bonadan by the fact that she's not wearing a breath mask.



Standing there for a moment she turns to head back, takes a step, then stops. Looking over her shoulder in your direction, she seems hesitant as she sizes you up.

All the while, the shifty looking Bothan dealer eyeballs you, alternating between breath mask and smoking, until he flicks the death stick toward the cliff, a sudden gust of wind carrying it just over the edge with a puff of dust and sand. Tapping away leisurely on a datapad, he seems disinterested in your presence, looking down at the screen, tinted goggles concealing any subtle efforts he might make to watch you.

In the distance you can make out some of the general din in the neighborhood: the yelling and screaming of some escalating domestic dispute, a couple of speeders roaring to life then rapidly approaching high speeds, the slave auctioneer selling lives through a vocal amplifier. More constant in the air is the sound of what you can only guess is a party of some kind, more distant, occasional cheers and laughter underscored by music, the faint sounds of something uptempo yet laid back.

I've adjusted inventories as necessary, but in the future, please note specific changes you'd like in OOC format at the bottom of your post, to make them more salient. As always, I encourage you to make sure the changes are correct.

It's always relevant, and I've noted it on your character sheet. Your characters, your choices. Thus far, the only assumptions I've made about any of your gear is that the lightsabers are concealed.

Squeeks and Tefmon have specified how they are wearing their weapons, the rest of you should as well.

Well, you either flip it or you don't, as the only way you can find if there is anything of consequence is to use the power (which costs 2 Dark Side points with Sense: Read Thoughts). Regardless, I'm just going to go with your desire to flip the destiny token, which allows you to tap into the Light Side for power, suffering 3 Strain per Light point used. You only need 1, so 3 Strain for Krosus.

Which reminds me to reset everyone's Strain and remove 1 Wounds for your rest on the Spear. I'm not infallible guys, you should keep an eye on your character sheets!

It warms my dark GM heart to happily inform you that the Destiny Pool is at...

0 Dark

6 Light

You have a bad feeling about this...

Also, starting now and moving forward, tapping into the Light Side of the Force will accrue three Conflict, a truly pathetic act for one who strives to embrace the Dark Side. So, Krosus accrues 3 Conflict for weakly tapping into the Light Side of the Force. Surprise, CCL, although I wouldn't worry too much, as Morality isn't a difficult game mechanic for players to manipulate, especially when you're playing Dark Side/Sith characters. From an RP standpoint, this makes sense, as it's hard to imagine a Dark Side character tapping into the Light as easily as a Light Side character would be tempted by the Dark.

Resetting everyone's Conflict from the last Morality roll, and your Strain/Wounds adjustments for the night's rest on the Spear.

As you start to make your way toward the front of the building, the Twi'lek prostitute seems as if she's anticipating your arrival. Although she doesn't appear nervous, she throws a couple of glances toward what you assume are the other two prostitutes at the front door. As you get closer, she takes a couple of slow steps and disappears around the corner. Continuing on your way, somewhat cautious of her behavior, you turn the front corner of the building and she's right there, leaning up against the wall in one of what you assume are one of many working girl poses.

With a quick up and down look at the lot of you, she pushes lithely off the wall. Addressing Lissewa, she speaks just loud enough for all of you to hear. "You're Lissewa, right?" She punctuates the question with a knowing, confident hint of a smile, eyebrow cocked ever so slightly. The stench of the Bonadan air doesn't seem to bother her at all.

Beyond her, you see one of the prostitutes you saw on the ride in, a human, lazily strut into the cantina, leaving the other, another Twi'lek, still at the front door working solo. Another speeder, a luxury sedan model with red tinted windows and an irridescent purple paint job, drifts into the parking lot, heading toward the back around the opposite side of the building from where you are. A piece of lonely debris bounces along down the street, picked up for a couple of seconds by a gust of wind.

The prostitute is taken aback for a moment, then flashes a flirty smile at Lissewa, accompanied by a subtle shift in pose that accentuates the profile of her curves. "Hmmm. Well," she says, voice like honey, "I might be able to fit you in later, but I'm already on the clock. Client's got me keeping an eye out, and I only do one client at a time." She gave Krosus a lingering glance. "Of course, there are always exceptions to the rule."

Back to the task at hand, she gives the group another once over. "C'mon. You're Lissewa... right? You've got to be. I mean, you and your friends fit the bill... purple Twi'lek, a Chiss, a pair of robed types, and a guy rocking head to toe armor."

She glances over her shoulder toward the front door, then back at the group, then Lissewa. "Trust me." Another smile. "Just follow me, and I can take you to meet my client."

Good call on the roll Squeeks, as it is a Deception wherein you are allowing the possibility that you are not Lissewa (and she has the potential to see through it, even if the situation is just a more light-hearted one). Although my roll was better than your placeholder, there was a lot of setback because your group perfectly fits the description she was given, and the prostitute sees through any attempt to keep your identity vague.

Also, hopefully everyone is comfortable with the narrative above (remember, our Star Wars game is meant to be edgier, darker). Just keeping my prostitute as believable as possible, and Lissewa and Krosus both have good Presence.

This was an invitation, and I'm not assuming everyone wants to go, or doesn't have questions first (like Hawke). Your characters, your choices, and I'm not going to nudge over half the group along into the Dead Drop. Right now we have 2 out of 5, which leaves Krosus, Lexi, and Lissewa undecided.
Hawke has a 2 Willpower, which gives a dice pool of 2 green. Looking at his 'Skills Upgrade Record' on the character sheet, under 'Non-Career Skills', he has one 1 rank from species in Coercion, which converts one of the green from Willpower into a yellow, resulting in a final pool of YG. Since we're waiting on some of the other players anyway, go ahead and roll your green dice Meribson, then let me know the tally in your post for today.

Lexi, having been stopped by the appearance of the red Twi'lek, fell to the back of the group as Lissewa moved forward to speak with her.

Another Progenitor-damned road block. I swear, the Sith empire could be brought low by simply putting stumbling blocks in the way of every advance. Like a child tripping on a rock. The urge to burn and slash is getting stronger. We've already been delayed in our true mission, every additional detour now adds time that I can't be doing my job as an Eye. I'm feeling myself get jumpier every time something happens. The traffic jam? Had I been more on point, I would have spotted the threat ages before getting into a situation that required such flashy maneuvering. Now we've got a simple meet complicated by the prattling of prostitutes.

She felt the Darkness start to wrap its tendrils through her thoughts as she struggled to keep her hands away from the concealed lightsaber hilt near her back. Instead, she forced her hand to sit on her slugthrower butt all while forcing her lips to stay closed.

Difficulty dice rolls for Hawke's Coercion (vs her Discipline), and Krosus' Charm (vs her Cool). EDIT 1: Using Hawke's net 2 Advantage to add a Boost to Krosus' Charm. Rolling... Result: Krosus' Charm ends up with 5 Success and 4 Threat.

Okay, moving on. I'm posting it about 12 hours early, but this is my official post for our March 22nd game day.

Drama, whatver you're rolling for, I'm not sure what you're trying to do. Trying to have Lexi control herself (Cool/Discipline) would be unnecessary to roll for, unless you wanted to put the dice in control of your character's 'self control' for a moment? Deception to conceal that you're struggling to keep your hands off your saber? Again, unnecessary unless you're trying to leave things to chance and open up the door to randomness. Just really not sure what you rolled for. Would you please clarify?

A steady breeze is picking up as the prostitute leads you toward the entrance. Along the way, Hawke's efforts to intimidate her go unnoticed; perhaps she's used to such efforts, given the neighborhood and her line of work. Krosus, however, manages to get on the prostitute's good side in the few steps it takes to get to the front door. Although he doesn't work her over with a silver tongue, he effortlessly hits home with a bit of well-timed authoritarian charm, amplified by what seems to be a natural attraction to Krosus on her part.



Stopping just outside the entrance, she finally gives in to Krosus 'all-business' pragmatism with a smile. Leaning in close to him, she speaks only loud enough so all of you can hear. "Okay, okay. Just because you're so... I don't know..." She seems flustered, unsure of what to say. Krosus gets the impression that his charm, in this case, seems to stem from his nonchalant demeanor toward the prostitute, which, based on her looks, is something she is not used to. She bites her lip, then playfully sighs. "Well, he said you'd know him anyway, and I'm sure you're who he told me to watch for. His name's Nash... you know, handsome on one side, not so much on the other? Sound famil---"



The other Twi'lek prostitute interrupts, sliding in to the conversation, pressing close to Krosus, subtly pushing up against him, clearly trying to work. "Hey baby. Haven't seen you 'round before." She looks at Red (the first prostitute you encountered), giggles, then back up at Krosus, tracing a finger down his chest. "You know, I'm not busy now either..."

Krosus gently places his hands on the green Twi'leks arm. Charming as you are, i hope you don't take me as an easy mark. So if you will put back what you found i will forgive this lack of judgment on your part. To also make it clear, the team of us are off limits. We are not to be trifled with, so pass the word around.

The only thing of value she could have found in that pocket would have been his comlink. His lightsaber and credit chip were both tucked away on his belt deep behind his back. Hopefully the Twi'lek will heed his words and pass around the message.

No more delays. Time to talk to Nash.

Some dice rolls:

Pickpocket Prostitute Discipline to resist Krosus' Coercion. Results: Krosus succeeds in Coercing the Pickpocket to let go with 3 Success and 3 Advantage.

There are some notes in the OOC General Chat that everyone should read as a reminder for PbP gameplay mechanics, to help us avoid retcons and improve clarity of communication.

The Pickpocket prostitute lets go of Krosus' datapad just before Hawke pushes her away. Fearful, she takes a few steps back from the group, eyes shifting around. Suddenly, she points a finger at your guide, the prostitute who says she knows Nash. "It was her idea! She's the one who put me up to it. Made me do it, I swear! I owe her some creds an--"

The Guide prostitute cuts her off, almost screeching. "You lying, broke-ass desperate BITCH!" She abruptly moves toward the Pickpocket, her body language threatening, wagging a finger in the Pickpocket's face. "You shut your LYING, SKANK BITCH mouth RIGHT NOW, or I'm gonna sh--!!"

The Pickpocket reacts, stepping toward the Guide. "Gonna what, BITCH! Get your STANK ass, BANTHA SHIT smelling finger outta my face, RIGHT NOW, or I'll beat your a--"

The Guide cuts the Pickpocket off again. The two of them seem easily on the edge of a 'tusk cat' fight.

Please see the Absences and Game Structure thread on the main page for an important announcement.