Star Wars (7ABY; M05, D28): The Other Sakaar
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Ganen, Ness, Garth, Mon, Roger, Sekar, and Morrigan / [XP: 12]
Everybody was here!
Month 5; Day 28
By the morning of the 28th, the Revenant was well on its way to Taris. Though Garth had an acquaintance who lived there, he knew only the fundamental facts about the planet.
Back before the Clone Wars, Taris was a rather ‘highbrow’ planet despite its distance from the Core. It was originally settled by colonists from Nubia who’d brought with them their shipbuilding traditions which emphasized form without the sacrifice of too much function (which made them rather expensive).
The good times came to a screeching halt in 21BBY when it became the site of the single largest naval engagement of the wars. Falling debris and the impact of numerous capital warship devastated the planet, and it had never recovered.
The planet had no Imperial presence and was currently ruled by an eccentric noble who called himself ‘The Supreme Overlord’ (or something to that effect). In addition to starship sales, the planet made money by allowing other planets to use it as a garbage dump.
The PCs decided to continue using their Reckless Endeavor ID for the time being. They also discovered that they had two messages waiting on their holonet transceiver…
From Badger: “Everything ok? I lost track of you after you left Lianna.”
From Lita Flagg: “I KNEW it! I KNEW that had to be you on Mon Cala as soon as I heard about it! You guys are awesome and I love you; keep in touch and let me know when you’re on the south side of the galaxy again. I want to meet your ‘crazy cannibal girl’.”
Roger took a moment to send a response to Badger; letting him know that they were ok, they were still looking for the Engineer, and were currently on their way to Taris to find a retired smuggler who might have information pertinent to his whereabouts.
The PCs reached Taris around mid-day; and being careful to steer clear of the brightly-colored electromagnetic rings which were projected into the sky to allow garbage scows to quickly drop their trash into neat piles in designated areas, they touched down in the capital city of Sakaar. They then discussed how they were going to pursue the very thin and vague lead which had brought them there.
A retired smuggler who’d wanted a droid to eliminate a rival might have been working in a number of different professions. Anywhere there was junk, there would be salvagers scrambling to get the best stuff; so that was one possibility. A little research indicated that there was pretty intense competition among the local starship designers, so that was another. Finally, the enormous arena which the PCs had seen when they landed was a good indicator that Taris had in fact been the planet which Ness’ former boss had spoken of; and gladiators certainly had rivals.
Scrappers: Garth, Morrigan, and Ganen
Garth’s local friend was a junk dealer and a mechanic, and Garth was hoping that he’d be able to do a little body work on his speeder. Since junk salvagers tended to sell to junk dealers, a visit might be a good way to kill two birds with one stone. Garth flew his speeder to his friend’s yard, while Morrigan and Ganen followed in the panther.
‘Stubbs’, as he now called himself, was an overweight man who was missing both of his legs just above the knee. He moved about his lot in a chair which was connected to a long, jointed mechanical arm which was mounted atop a tall metal column. After introductions were made, Morrigan asked how he’d lost his legs; to which he replied that he’d stepped on a land mine but didn’t elaborate on the circumstances. When Garth asked about cybernetics, Stubbs replied “I might be less of a man but at least I’m all man.”
After marveling for a few minutes at the Gale 11 (Stubbs had apparently known prior that Garth was looking for one), Stubbs suddenly remembered something and rode his chair to another portion of the lot. When he returned a few minutes later, a gripper arm attached to his chair was holding some kind of bulky armored flight suit. When he realized what it was, Garth lit up like a kid on Life Day morning.
Even more rare than the Gale 11 itself, the flight suit was specifically designed to interface with a Gale 11’s sensor system; and it was also heavily padded to help protect the pilot in the event of a minor collision. This particular one, however, had apparently been owned by a professional racer who had an endorsement from something called ‘Fruity Oaty Bar’ (a snack which was popular back in the decade or so prior to the Clone Wars). A very cartoonish image of an octopus with its tentacles around the shoulders of two girls was emblazoned across back, and a digital diagnostic panel on the front intermittently played a 30-second commercial for the product. Ganen warned him that if he didn’t figure out how to mute or halt these ads, he’d punch him in the chest until they stopped.
After Garth profusely thanked Stubbs for the gift, he finally remembered the main reason why they were there. Stubbs informed the PCs that one of the best scrappers in the business, a woman known only as ‘Scrapper 142’, had indeed been attacked almost a year earlier by some kind of droid. Her body had never been found, however; though she hadn’t been seen since.
“The top guy now is named ‘Shamai’”, Stubbs continued. “He’s some kind of near-human with sorta bluish-gray skin. His ship is really easy to recognize, though; it’s shaped kinda like an ‘L’ and can split apart into four smaller ships.”
Leaving Garth’s speeder with Stubbs, the PCs took the panther back to the Revenant. They then transferred over to Specter and began searching the endless stretches of junk piles surrounding the city.
After a while, the PCs spotted an airspeeder in a parking hover near an island of junk surrounded by water. Scanning the area and finding nobody around, they decided to grab it; and Morrigan opened the main door and then carefully backed Specter up towards it.
Just as Garth and Ganen were about to disembark, however; the sensors picked up something very large moving in the water directly beneath them. Morrigan sharply pitched the shuttle forward to throw the boys back inside, then yanked the collective and pulled straight up into the air just as an enormous pair of bright red tentacles shot up out of the water and tried to grab them. The PCs decided at that point that the speeder wasn’t worth the risk, but they didn’t want anyone else to make the same mistake; so Morrigan blasted the speeder to pieces.
After another while of searching, the PCs spotted four small ships with identical exterior aesthetics. One of them was on the ground, and around a dozen people in colorful robes were searching the surrounding heaps of scrap. The other three were buzzing around nearby; pinging away with their active sensors.
By the time Morrigan touched down near the landed ship and opened the main door, the dozen scrappers had congregated nearby and were now holding (but not pointing) crude blaster carbines. Garth exited with his arms raised, though Ganen following him out kept them on a alert.
Shamai was in fact among them; and when Garth asked if he might know where he could buy a ‘specialist’ droid, the alien just scoffed. “If I had wanted Scrapper 142 dead”, he then declared, “I’d have shot her in her drunken face; not sent some droid to do it for me. Furthermore, she retired from scrapping a week before the attempt on her life.”
“She had branched into bounty hunting years earlier”, he continued when asked about her retirement from scrapping. “I’m not certain of the detail, but I believe she’d gotten some kind of offer to work directly for the government.”
As the PCs began to depart, Shamai decided that he was wanted Specter and that it “wouldn’t be too far for the PCs to walk back to the city”. Thankfully, Morrigan had remained on board; and they all backed off when she rotated the autoblaster turret around towards them.
Ship Designers: Roger and Jacinta
Roger and Jacinta made their way on foot to the nearest used starship lot; the former figuring that the staff would probably be familiar with all of the big name local shipwrights. At a lot called ‘Reexit’, they spoke with a young Mirialan woman with yellow skin and no facial tattoos. As she showed them what they had on hand, Roger listed carefully to the names of the designers; and when she mentioned the third or fourth new name, Roger interrupted: “Isn’t that the one who died kinda horribly?”
“Oh, no”, the woman said with a firm shake of her head. “You’re probably thinking of Shal Zaphos; he died in a test flight when his new astromech went wonky or something.” This allowed Roger to segue to asking who the biggest name on the planet was now, and the girl gave him the name ‘Xap Abado’.
As they made their way to Xap Abado’s studio “Dreamflight”, the PCs passed through a junky tunnel which was painted green down one side and blue down the other. Neither of them noticed the two children (only a year or two older than Jacinta) who’d painted their skin and scant clothing to blend right into the walls.
Before they even knew that they weren’t alone, a green girl had snatched Roger’s carbine from its holster and taken off running down the tunnel in the direction which the PCs had come from. As she had nothing on her person worth stealing, the blue-painted boy contented himself to slap Jacinta’s rump as he dashed by her.
The green girl was fast and had a few seconds’ head start, but Roger had nearly caught up with her by the time she exited the tunnel and crossed the busy street at the end. As she cocked her arm back to toss the blaster to another child waiting atop a wall, Roger managed to grab it; and he didn’t pursue when she let go and dashed down the crowded street.
Running back into the tunnel, Roger found Jacinta kneeling on the back of the blue boy, who was face-down in the tunnel with blood pouring from his nose and tears pouring from his eyes. She had the boy’s right arm twisted behind his back with one hand and her vibro-knife in the other; and to Roger’s dismay, she appeared as though she intended to sever his fingers.
Roger calmly told the girl to put the knife away and let the kid go; and though she complied, she shot him a look which made it abundantly clear that she wasn’t happy about it. “You don’t ever touch a girl like that again”, she hissed as she dragged him to his feet and then shoved him away.
As they continued on their way, Jacinta was visibly shaking with rage; though her body language seemed to indicate that she didn’t want to talk about it. She eventually put it behind her when they passed a vividly-colored vending machine and she asked Roger to buy her a soda. She’d already developed a raging sweet tooth in her short time with the PCs, and now she’d discovered the wonder of sugary caffeinated beverages.
After a brief chat, the receptionist at Dreamflight escorted the PC into an enormous empty room with gleaming and featureless white walls, ceiling, and floor. A few moments later, they were joined by a very charismatic and energetic dark-skinned man with purple hair and a matching suit.
“I gotcha!”, the man proclaimed with a broad smile as he pointed at the PCs. “No need to say a word; I’m already way ahead of you… now let me put the Xap on you two!”
As the man made a flourishing gesture, a sharp hologram of a heavily-armed light transport suddenly appeared before the PCs. Its color, contours, and overall aesthetic all perfectly matched Roger’s armor; and its sleek, ominous, and predatory form made he and Jacinta both go wide-eyed in delight.
With additional gestures, Xap was able to make changes in an instant; showing off variants with retractable hidden weapons, and roomier interior, and other features. He then expanded the hologram to actual size so that the PCs could move about and see exactly what the interior would be like.
All the while, Xap was in full salesman mode; talking up his starship and flattering the PCs but also mocking their VCX-100, which he referred to as a ‘space cow’. “You deserve better than that”, he said to Roger; “and you know your little girl deserves better than that.” Neither Roger nor Jacinta was inclined to correct him.
Between the half-million credit price tag and it being completely inadequate for the group’s needs, Roger was finally able to snap himself back to reality and recall why he was really there. The moment he mentioned Shal Zaphos, Xap’s exuberant demeanor instantly fell to one of annoyance and unhappiness; and with a curt wave of his hand, the holograms disappeared. “Come with me, please”, he said as he led the PC’s out of the room.
Back in his R&D area, he approached an older man seated at a computer console. “This is Doctor Zai Kerrek, my ergonomics expert”, Xap said. Dr. Kerrek, would you please tell these people about your former employer.” As Kerrek turned to face the PCs, he let out a sigh as though he’d told this story countless time and was tired of it.
“For all their talk and their rivalry and their sniping at each other in their ads”, Dr. Kerrek began,
“Shal and Xap were best friends. With so many droid-related deaths over the last year, people were quick to focus on the fact that a new BB unit was involved; but the droid wasn’t the problem, at least not directly.”
“Shal was testing a new droid socket for the BB series; his own design… completely experimental. When he tried to turn control over to the droid, something went wrong and it wasn’t able to interface with anything. He tried to take control back, but the glitch seized up the entire flight control system and the ship crashed before he could bail out.”
As Xap escorted the PCs out, Roger apologized; and Xap’s demeanor instantly brightened again. Roger then told him that he would sincerely be interested in talking again once he had more money, and Xap gave him a card.
“Everything in my brain is telling me that that man is completely worthless”, Jacinta commented after they left. “But my heart just can’t not like him.”
Gladiators: Ness, Mon, and Sekar
Trying their best to look like a gladiator, her press agent, and her trainer respectively; Ness, Mon, and Sekar made their way to the enormous arena not far from the palace. The spectator’s entrance was closed, and the ‘employees only’ entrance was guarded by a pair of men who were wearing gaudy laminate armor and armed with strange-looking shock staffs of some kind.
“Amateur hour starts at sundown”, one of them said when Ness expressed an interest in fighting. “Come back half an hour to an hour before.” Asked if there was a bar where gladiators tended the congregate, the guard stated that he wasn’t aware of any. Asked if there was a bar where fans tended to congregate, the guard said that the closest one was just down the street and was called the ‘Bloodbath Bar’.
After getting out of earshot of the guards, Mon tried to get the girls into a huddle to discuss how they wanted to proceed; but Sekar had started down the street as soon as she’d heard the word ‘bar’. Ness ran to catch up with her, and Mon instead went to a nearby public information terminal.
Every last thing in the Bloodbath Bar, from the walls and ceiling to the chairs and glasses, was painted the exact same shade of red. As it was still early in the day, there were only half a dozen or so patrons in the place; and so the bartender was happy to chat with Ness about the local prizefighting scene, which was called the ‘Contest of Champions’.
The fights involved lethal melee weapons but didn’t always end in death. A fighter could yield at any time, his associates (if he had any) could stop the fight at any time, and it wasn’t uncommon for a person to be incapacitated but not killed (and it was considered poor sportsmanship (though not actually illegal) to finish off someone who could no longer defend themselves).
Fights were held every night starting as sunset, though championship matches were only fought on the last night of the week (which the 28th happened to be). The champion and all of the top dozen or so contenders were allowed to live in suites in the palace, while others were scattered all over the city. The current champion was a rather dashing man named Rob Essex, who’d shot up from the amateur ranks in only a couple of months.
The previous champion was a hulking Dowutin known as ‘The Maxx’. After a two-year reign as champion, he’d been killed by a labor droid which was initially believed to have malfunctioned. A closer look, however, revealed that the droid had been reprogrammed; which launched a major investigation. The suites of all of the top contenders were searched, and a data card with an activation and targeting program was found in the suite of the top-ranked contender: a Rodian woman named Grapha. A toss-up fight was held between Rob Essex (the #2 contender) and the #3 contender, with Essex emerging victorious. Grapha meanwhile had one final fight in the arena… with no weapon.
Filtering for news reports on droid-related murders, Mon was able to find more information regarding the deaths of both The Maxx and Scrapper 142. Shal Zaphos’ death wasn’t even listed as droid-related.
The Maxx, who was quite wealthy from his prize money, was constantly ordering food and various luxuries from off world; and he insisted upon personally checking everything when it was received. Around a month ago, he was checking his latest shipment when one of the labor droids began tossing his things out of the open dock door; which was located hundreds of feet off of the ground. When he tried to intervene, the enormous droid tossed him out of the open dock door. Everything else Mon learned was consistent with what Ness had been told.
The circumstances surrounding the disappearance of Scrapper 142 were much less clear. A modified astromech armed with a heavy blaster pistol was found inactive next to a window in her apartment which had been shot out. Several neighbors had heard the shooting, but nobody saw her exit. As best as anyone could guess; the droid had broken into her apartment and ambushed her, but she’d escaped through the window before he could finish her off. After moving to the window and being unable to find her, the droid had fried its own primary circuitry. The only problem with the theory was that it was a long way from the window to her ground, there was nothing to climb onto, and no body was ever found. She’d not been seen in almost a year now.
Mon met back up with Sekar and Ness, and the three of them decided to pay a visit to the palace. It was a long shot, but maybe they’d be able to speak with Rob Essex.
While making their way towards the palace, they ran into a parade coming the opposite direction down a thoroughfare. Up-tempo music was being played on drums and some other instruments, and dozens of people with their skin and clothing painted vivid colors were energetically dancing. The blitz of head-spinning hues was further intensified by richly-colored smoke bombs being set off all over the place.
Observers clustered on the sides of the street to allow the parade to go by, and the PCs began making inquiries as to what the parade was about. Before they could get any clear answers, they learned that there was more in the smoke bombs than just coloring. Within moments; Ness and Mon were both feeling rather dizzy, and Sekar was as high as a kite.
“We used to make that stuff in college”, Mon commented; recognizing the drug from the residual smell.
“Can you make more?”, Sekar queried.
Before heading on to the palace, the PCs decided to stop at a little outdoor café to get some munchies and give Sekar some time to hopefully sober up. Unfortunately, they’d only just started to dive into their cheese sticks when a commotion broke out.
The PCs looked up to see a red painted droid at least 13’ tall lumber up to the edge of the seating area. With its photoreceptor pointing directly at the PCs, it picked up the nearest table with clear intention to throw it.
The PCs immediately got up and dashed into the indoor portion of the café; though Mon and Ness kinda had to drag Sekar because she found the spectacle rather amusing. The droid was too tall to follow them inside; but when the PCs drew blasters and began shooting, it withdrew from their line of sight.
Blaster in hand and brain in neutral, Sekar dashed outside to find that the droid had only retreated a short distance. When she fired at it again, she was now close enough to realize that it was equipped with shields.
In response, the droid pimp-slapped her with one of its oversized metallic hands; sending her flying back through the doorway with enough force to knock down both of her comrades. As it lumbered forward to continue its attack; Mon picked up Sekar (who was fairly seriously hurt), grabbed Ness by the hand, and ran for the back door of the café. Within a few minutes, they were fairly certain that they weren’t being pursued; and they decided to delay their palace visit and head back to the ship.
Rendezvous
At around 15:00 in the afternoon, the PCs all converged back at the Revenant so that Sekar could get some medical attention and they could all catch each other up. Ganen speculated that Mon’s record search might have been what prompted the droid attack; noting that a slicer who could reprogram a droid to kill could also write a routine to be alerted when certain queries were made. Ness agreed, but noted that there were also a few patron in the bar who might have overheard her conversation with the bartender.
At that point, it seemed that checking out the palace would probably be their best route forward. Rob Essex (who might have killed The Maxx and then framed Grapha for it to get them both out of the way) lived there; and if it was true that Scrapper 142 had been offered a government job right before the attempt on her life, the palace might hold answers to that incident as well.
Ganen, Ness, Garth, Mon, Roger, Sekar, and Morrigan / [XP: 12]
Everybody was here!
Month 5; Day 28
By the morning of the 28th, the Revenant was well on its way to Taris. Though Garth had an acquaintance who lived there, he knew only the fundamental facts about the planet.
Back before the Clone Wars, Taris was a rather ‘highbrow’ planet despite its distance from the Core. It was originally settled by colonists from Nubia who’d brought with them their shipbuilding traditions which emphasized form without the sacrifice of too much function (which made them rather expensive).
The good times came to a screeching halt in 21BBY when it became the site of the single largest naval engagement of the wars. Falling debris and the impact of numerous capital warship devastated the planet, and it had never recovered.
The planet had no Imperial presence and was currently ruled by an eccentric noble who called himself ‘The Supreme Overlord’ (or something to that effect). In addition to starship sales, the planet made money by allowing other planets to use it as a garbage dump.
The PCs decided to continue using their Reckless Endeavor ID for the time being. They also discovered that they had two messages waiting on their holonet transceiver…
From Badger: “Everything ok? I lost track of you after you left Lianna.”
From Lita Flagg: “I KNEW it! I KNEW that had to be you on Mon Cala as soon as I heard about it! You guys are awesome and I love you; keep in touch and let me know when you’re on the south side of the galaxy again. I want to meet your ‘crazy cannibal girl’.”
Roger took a moment to send a response to Badger; letting him know that they were ok, they were still looking for the Engineer, and were currently on their way to Taris to find a retired smuggler who might have information pertinent to his whereabouts.
The PCs reached Taris around mid-day; and being careful to steer clear of the brightly-colored electromagnetic rings which were projected into the sky to allow garbage scows to quickly drop their trash into neat piles in designated areas, they touched down in the capital city of Sakaar. They then discussed how they were going to pursue the very thin and vague lead which had brought them there.
A retired smuggler who’d wanted a droid to eliminate a rival might have been working in a number of different professions. Anywhere there was junk, there would be salvagers scrambling to get the best stuff; so that was one possibility. A little research indicated that there was pretty intense competition among the local starship designers, so that was another. Finally, the enormous arena which the PCs had seen when they landed was a good indicator that Taris had in fact been the planet which Ness’ former boss had spoken of; and gladiators certainly had rivals.
Scrappers: Garth, Morrigan, and Ganen
Garth’s local friend was a junk dealer and a mechanic, and Garth was hoping that he’d be able to do a little body work on his speeder. Since junk salvagers tended to sell to junk dealers, a visit might be a good way to kill two birds with one stone. Garth flew his speeder to his friend’s yard, while Morrigan and Ganen followed in the panther.
‘Stubbs’, as he now called himself, was an overweight man who was missing both of his legs just above the knee. He moved about his lot in a chair which was connected to a long, jointed mechanical arm which was mounted atop a tall metal column. After introductions were made, Morrigan asked how he’d lost his legs; to which he replied that he’d stepped on a land mine but didn’t elaborate on the circumstances. When Garth asked about cybernetics, Stubbs replied “I might be less of a man but at least I’m all man.”
After marveling for a few minutes at the Gale 11 (Stubbs had apparently known prior that Garth was looking for one), Stubbs suddenly remembered something and rode his chair to another portion of the lot. When he returned a few minutes later, a gripper arm attached to his chair was holding some kind of bulky armored flight suit. When he realized what it was, Garth lit up like a kid on Life Day morning.
Even more rare than the Gale 11 itself, the flight suit was specifically designed to interface with a Gale 11’s sensor system; and it was also heavily padded to help protect the pilot in the event of a minor collision. This particular one, however, had apparently been owned by a professional racer who had an endorsement from something called ‘Fruity Oaty Bar’ (a snack which was popular back in the decade or so prior to the Clone Wars). A very cartoonish image of an octopus with its tentacles around the shoulders of two girls was emblazoned across back, and a digital diagnostic panel on the front intermittently played a 30-second commercial for the product. Ganen warned him that if he didn’t figure out how to mute or halt these ads, he’d punch him in the chest until they stopped.
After Garth profusely thanked Stubbs for the gift, he finally remembered the main reason why they were there. Stubbs informed the PCs that one of the best scrappers in the business, a woman known only as ‘Scrapper 142’, had indeed been attacked almost a year earlier by some kind of droid. Her body had never been found, however; though she hadn’t been seen since.
“The top guy now is named ‘Shamai’”, Stubbs continued. “He’s some kind of near-human with sorta bluish-gray skin. His ship is really easy to recognize, though; it’s shaped kinda like an ‘L’ and can split apart into four smaller ships.”
Leaving Garth’s speeder with Stubbs, the PCs took the panther back to the Revenant. They then transferred over to Specter and began searching the endless stretches of junk piles surrounding the city.
After a while, the PCs spotted an airspeeder in a parking hover near an island of junk surrounded by water. Scanning the area and finding nobody around, they decided to grab it; and Morrigan opened the main door and then carefully backed Specter up towards it.
Just as Garth and Ganen were about to disembark, however; the sensors picked up something very large moving in the water directly beneath them. Morrigan sharply pitched the shuttle forward to throw the boys back inside, then yanked the collective and pulled straight up into the air just as an enormous pair of bright red tentacles shot up out of the water and tried to grab them. The PCs decided at that point that the speeder wasn’t worth the risk, but they didn’t want anyone else to make the same mistake; so Morrigan blasted the speeder to pieces.
After another while of searching, the PCs spotted four small ships with identical exterior aesthetics. One of them was on the ground, and around a dozen people in colorful robes were searching the surrounding heaps of scrap. The other three were buzzing around nearby; pinging away with their active sensors.
By the time Morrigan touched down near the landed ship and opened the main door, the dozen scrappers had congregated nearby and were now holding (but not pointing) crude blaster carbines. Garth exited with his arms raised, though Ganen following him out kept them on a alert.
Shamai was in fact among them; and when Garth asked if he might know where he could buy a ‘specialist’ droid, the alien just scoffed. “If I had wanted Scrapper 142 dead”, he then declared, “I’d have shot her in her drunken face; not sent some droid to do it for me. Furthermore, she retired from scrapping a week before the attempt on her life.”
“She had branched into bounty hunting years earlier”, he continued when asked about her retirement from scrapping. “I’m not certain of the detail, but I believe she’d gotten some kind of offer to work directly for the government.”
As the PCs began to depart, Shamai decided that he was wanted Specter and that it “wouldn’t be too far for the PCs to walk back to the city”. Thankfully, Morrigan had remained on board; and they all backed off when she rotated the autoblaster turret around towards them.
Ship Designers: Roger and Jacinta
Roger and Jacinta made their way on foot to the nearest used starship lot; the former figuring that the staff would probably be familiar with all of the big name local shipwrights. At a lot called ‘Reexit’, they spoke with a young Mirialan woman with yellow skin and no facial tattoos. As she showed them what they had on hand, Roger listed carefully to the names of the designers; and when she mentioned the third or fourth new name, Roger interrupted: “Isn’t that the one who died kinda horribly?”
“Oh, no”, the woman said with a firm shake of her head. “You’re probably thinking of Shal Zaphos; he died in a test flight when his new astromech went wonky or something.” This allowed Roger to segue to asking who the biggest name on the planet was now, and the girl gave him the name ‘Xap Abado’.
As they made their way to Xap Abado’s studio “Dreamflight”, the PCs passed through a junky tunnel which was painted green down one side and blue down the other. Neither of them noticed the two children (only a year or two older than Jacinta) who’d painted their skin and scant clothing to blend right into the walls.
Before they even knew that they weren’t alone, a green girl had snatched Roger’s carbine from its holster and taken off running down the tunnel in the direction which the PCs had come from. As she had nothing on her person worth stealing, the blue-painted boy contented himself to slap Jacinta’s rump as he dashed by her.
The green girl was fast and had a few seconds’ head start, but Roger had nearly caught up with her by the time she exited the tunnel and crossed the busy street at the end. As she cocked her arm back to toss the blaster to another child waiting atop a wall, Roger managed to grab it; and he didn’t pursue when she let go and dashed down the crowded street.
Running back into the tunnel, Roger found Jacinta kneeling on the back of the blue boy, who was face-down in the tunnel with blood pouring from his nose and tears pouring from his eyes. She had the boy’s right arm twisted behind his back with one hand and her vibro-knife in the other; and to Roger’s dismay, she appeared as though she intended to sever his fingers.
Roger calmly told the girl to put the knife away and let the kid go; and though she complied, she shot him a look which made it abundantly clear that she wasn’t happy about it. “You don’t ever touch a girl like that again”, she hissed as she dragged him to his feet and then shoved him away.
As they continued on their way, Jacinta was visibly shaking with rage; though her body language seemed to indicate that she didn’t want to talk about it. She eventually put it behind her when they passed a vividly-colored vending machine and she asked Roger to buy her a soda. She’d already developed a raging sweet tooth in her short time with the PCs, and now she’d discovered the wonder of sugary caffeinated beverages.
After a brief chat, the receptionist at Dreamflight escorted the PC into an enormous empty room with gleaming and featureless white walls, ceiling, and floor. A few moments later, they were joined by a very charismatic and energetic dark-skinned man with purple hair and a matching suit.
“I gotcha!”, the man proclaimed with a broad smile as he pointed at the PCs. “No need to say a word; I’m already way ahead of you… now let me put the Xap on you two!”
As the man made a flourishing gesture, a sharp hologram of a heavily-armed light transport suddenly appeared before the PCs. Its color, contours, and overall aesthetic all perfectly matched Roger’s armor; and its sleek, ominous, and predatory form made he and Jacinta both go wide-eyed in delight.
With additional gestures, Xap was able to make changes in an instant; showing off variants with retractable hidden weapons, and roomier interior, and other features. He then expanded the hologram to actual size so that the PCs could move about and see exactly what the interior would be like.
All the while, Xap was in full salesman mode; talking up his starship and flattering the PCs but also mocking their VCX-100, which he referred to as a ‘space cow’. “You deserve better than that”, he said to Roger; “and you know your little girl deserves better than that.” Neither Roger nor Jacinta was inclined to correct him.
Between the half-million credit price tag and it being completely inadequate for the group’s needs, Roger was finally able to snap himself back to reality and recall why he was really there. The moment he mentioned Shal Zaphos, Xap’s exuberant demeanor instantly fell to one of annoyance and unhappiness; and with a curt wave of his hand, the holograms disappeared. “Come with me, please”, he said as he led the PC’s out of the room.
Back in his R&D area, he approached an older man seated at a computer console. “This is Doctor Zai Kerrek, my ergonomics expert”, Xap said. Dr. Kerrek, would you please tell these people about your former employer.” As Kerrek turned to face the PCs, he let out a sigh as though he’d told this story countless time and was tired of it.
“For all their talk and their rivalry and their sniping at each other in their ads”, Dr. Kerrek began,
“Shal and Xap were best friends. With so many droid-related deaths over the last year, people were quick to focus on the fact that a new BB unit was involved; but the droid wasn’t the problem, at least not directly.”
“Shal was testing a new droid socket for the BB series; his own design… completely experimental. When he tried to turn control over to the droid, something went wrong and it wasn’t able to interface with anything. He tried to take control back, but the glitch seized up the entire flight control system and the ship crashed before he could bail out.”
As Xap escorted the PCs out, Roger apologized; and Xap’s demeanor instantly brightened again. Roger then told him that he would sincerely be interested in talking again once he had more money, and Xap gave him a card.
“Everything in my brain is telling me that that man is completely worthless”, Jacinta commented after they left. “But my heart just can’t not like him.”
Gladiators: Ness, Mon, and Sekar
Trying their best to look like a gladiator, her press agent, and her trainer respectively; Ness, Mon, and Sekar made their way to the enormous arena not far from the palace. The spectator’s entrance was closed, and the ‘employees only’ entrance was guarded by a pair of men who were wearing gaudy laminate armor and armed with strange-looking shock staffs of some kind.
“Amateur hour starts at sundown”, one of them said when Ness expressed an interest in fighting. “Come back half an hour to an hour before.” Asked if there was a bar where gladiators tended the congregate, the guard stated that he wasn’t aware of any. Asked if there was a bar where fans tended to congregate, the guard said that the closest one was just down the street and was called the ‘Bloodbath Bar’.
After getting out of earshot of the guards, Mon tried to get the girls into a huddle to discuss how they wanted to proceed; but Sekar had started down the street as soon as she’d heard the word ‘bar’. Ness ran to catch up with her, and Mon instead went to a nearby public information terminal.
Every last thing in the Bloodbath Bar, from the walls and ceiling to the chairs and glasses, was painted the exact same shade of red. As it was still early in the day, there were only half a dozen or so patrons in the place; and so the bartender was happy to chat with Ness about the local prizefighting scene, which was called the ‘Contest of Champions’.
The fights involved lethal melee weapons but didn’t always end in death. A fighter could yield at any time, his associates (if he had any) could stop the fight at any time, and it wasn’t uncommon for a person to be incapacitated but not killed (and it was considered poor sportsmanship (though not actually illegal) to finish off someone who could no longer defend themselves).
Fights were held every night starting as sunset, though championship matches were only fought on the last night of the week (which the 28th happened to be). The champion and all of the top dozen or so contenders were allowed to live in suites in the palace, while others were scattered all over the city. The current champion was a rather dashing man named Rob Essex, who’d shot up from the amateur ranks in only a couple of months.
The previous champion was a hulking Dowutin known as ‘The Maxx’. After a two-year reign as champion, he’d been killed by a labor droid which was initially believed to have malfunctioned. A closer look, however, revealed that the droid had been reprogrammed; which launched a major investigation. The suites of all of the top contenders were searched, and a data card with an activation and targeting program was found in the suite of the top-ranked contender: a Rodian woman named Grapha. A toss-up fight was held between Rob Essex (the #2 contender) and the #3 contender, with Essex emerging victorious. Grapha meanwhile had one final fight in the arena… with no weapon.
Filtering for news reports on droid-related murders, Mon was able to find more information regarding the deaths of both The Maxx and Scrapper 142. Shal Zaphos’ death wasn’t even listed as droid-related.
The Maxx, who was quite wealthy from his prize money, was constantly ordering food and various luxuries from off world; and he insisted upon personally checking everything when it was received. Around a month ago, he was checking his latest shipment when one of the labor droids began tossing his things out of the open dock door; which was located hundreds of feet off of the ground. When he tried to intervene, the enormous droid tossed him out of the open dock door. Everything else Mon learned was consistent with what Ness had been told.
The circumstances surrounding the disappearance of Scrapper 142 were much less clear. A modified astromech armed with a heavy blaster pistol was found inactive next to a window in her apartment which had been shot out. Several neighbors had heard the shooting, but nobody saw her exit. As best as anyone could guess; the droid had broken into her apartment and ambushed her, but she’d escaped through the window before he could finish her off. After moving to the window and being unable to find her, the droid had fried its own primary circuitry. The only problem with the theory was that it was a long way from the window to her ground, there was nothing to climb onto, and no body was ever found. She’d not been seen in almost a year now.
Mon met back up with Sekar and Ness, and the three of them decided to pay a visit to the palace. It was a long shot, but maybe they’d be able to speak with Rob Essex.
While making their way towards the palace, they ran into a parade coming the opposite direction down a thoroughfare. Up-tempo music was being played on drums and some other instruments, and dozens of people with their skin and clothing painted vivid colors were energetically dancing. The blitz of head-spinning hues was further intensified by richly-colored smoke bombs being set off all over the place.
Observers clustered on the sides of the street to allow the parade to go by, and the PCs began making inquiries as to what the parade was about. Before they could get any clear answers, they learned that there was more in the smoke bombs than just coloring. Within moments; Ness and Mon were both feeling rather dizzy, and Sekar was as high as a kite.
“We used to make that stuff in college”, Mon commented; recognizing the drug from the residual smell.
“Can you make more?”, Sekar queried.
Before heading on to the palace, the PCs decided to stop at a little outdoor café to get some munchies and give Sekar some time to hopefully sober up. Unfortunately, they’d only just started to dive into their cheese sticks when a commotion broke out.
The PCs looked up to see a red painted droid at least 13’ tall lumber up to the edge of the seating area. With its photoreceptor pointing directly at the PCs, it picked up the nearest table with clear intention to throw it.
The PCs immediately got up and dashed into the indoor portion of the café; though Mon and Ness kinda had to drag Sekar because she found the spectacle rather amusing. The droid was too tall to follow them inside; but when the PCs drew blasters and began shooting, it withdrew from their line of sight.
Blaster in hand and brain in neutral, Sekar dashed outside to find that the droid had only retreated a short distance. When she fired at it again, she was now close enough to realize that it was equipped with shields.
In response, the droid pimp-slapped her with one of its oversized metallic hands; sending her flying back through the doorway with enough force to knock down both of her comrades. As it lumbered forward to continue its attack; Mon picked up Sekar (who was fairly seriously hurt), grabbed Ness by the hand, and ran for the back door of the café. Within a few minutes, they were fairly certain that they weren’t being pursued; and they decided to delay their palace visit and head back to the ship.
Rendezvous
At around 15:00 in the afternoon, the PCs all converged back at the Revenant so that Sekar could get some medical attention and they could all catch each other up. Ganen speculated that Mon’s record search might have been what prompted the droid attack; noting that a slicer who could reprogram a droid to kill could also write a routine to be alerted when certain queries were made. Ness agreed, but noted that there were also a few patron in the bar who might have overheard her conversation with the bartender.
At that point, it seemed that checking out the palace would probably be their best route forward. Rob Essex (who might have killed The Maxx and then framed Grapha for it to get them both out of the way) lived there; and if it was true that Scrapper 142 had been offered a government job right before the attempt on her life, the palace might hold answers to that incident as well.