Simple Tricks III

Simple Tricks and Nonsense
Episode III
February 20, 2016

The Crawl

Take Him Home

After collecting their payment for stealing the Imperial Lambda shuttle, the crew of the Painted S'kytri purchase some minor bits of equipment to fill their kits out and head back to Kira Station to discuss what they are going to do with the good Captain's body.

It is decided that he should be buried on Socorro, a decision that Alita is both pleased with and concerned about at the same time. Socorro is the only place Captain Largo ever really seemed at home, besides in the cockpit of the ship. Alita is worried that there may be danger for her and the rest of the crew there in the form of whoever killed her family those many years ago.

Gleeko, the bartender at the Starshine Cantina and their usual deal broker finalizes the details on several upcoming jobs for the crew that work well with their decision to take the Captain to Socorro. They are to stop over on Enarc to pick up some industrial/ agricultural parts and deliver them to Leritor. From Leritor, they are to take on a full cargo of food-stuffs and deliver them to Lamaredd far on the Outer Rim. Gleeko also asks them to pick up a few cases of Socorran raava for the cantina while they are on Socorro. 

Jer Bolanka, worried father

Once on Enarc, they find their contact easily and load the parts, several huge pieces of machinery and numerous crates of smaller parts for the enormous agricultural combines that scour the plains of Leritor. While the cargo is being loaded, the group is approached by an upper class Nemoidian named Jer Bolanka. He explains that he received their contact info from Gleeko and wants to hire them for a side job while on their way to Socorro and Leritor. 

Bolanka offers 5000cr each to locate and hopefully return his son, Ree Bolanka, to him and his wife. He says that his son is a bit of a wild child and has run off to pursue some dangerous pod-racing dream. The last known location of Ree was Socorro, in the company of a low-life Dug named Benkudi. He gives each member of the crew 500cr upfront and a datapad with all the pertinent information regarding his son, Ree, as well as hyperspace coordinates to Socorro and several other nearby systems just in case. He says if Ree refuses to return home, that just a simple bit of contact from him to his mother would suffice. He stresses that he wishes no harm to come to his son and forceful return is not desired, though he is ok with a little bit of coercion if necessary.

The crew agrees to this job since it is easy money and along the way anyway. Varko does some poking around in the Enarc underworld and finds a job smuggling some contraband for Oorrbih Tror, a local Hutt crimelord but he cannot come up with enough starting capital to make the deal work. The crew is then off for Socorro.

Socorran customs agent

On Socorro, the crew navigates the spaceport and its unique local customs and make arrangements to bury the Captain out in the desert at the Judges of the Dead, a sacred locale where honored souls are buried beneath several towering rock formations that are in the shape of tall, hooded beings watching over the dead. Word gets out quick that Captain Minas Largo has been brought home to be buried and many in the Soco-Jarel spaceport are talking about it. 

Dex and Lofchiir spend the evening honoring the Captain by drinking copious amounts of alcohol in his name. They end the night at the local brewery, hoping to purchase the raava for Gleeko, but the brewery is not open in the middle of the night, so the two drunken revelers write their names on the wall and stagger back to the ship.

Varko and Rook spend their evening trying to re-establish some good smuggling contacts that the Captain would have been proud of while Alita and Xetsu finalize all the burial ceremony details, including renting a speeder and contacting several of the Captain's old friends. 

It seems like the whole city and half the surrounding countryside shows up to the burial. People line the streets and the road out into the desert where a huge crowd has respectfully gathered. Alita and the crew lead the traditional Socorran ceremony of burying the Captain, with each member leaving him with something personal. These things range from tools, to weapons to alcohol. Xestu recites a poem he had written for the Captain. All listen, teary eyed as he reads the words:

Through walls, through holes,  

Through sentry points. 

Through wires, through rubbleThrough fences. 

Hungry, daring, stubbornI flee, dart like a Cathar 

At noon, at night, in dawning hoursIn blizzards, in heat 

A hundred times I risk my lifeI risk my smuggler's neck 

Through walls, through holes,Through brickwork. 

At night, at dawn, at day. 

Hungry, daring, cunning, Quiet as a shadow I leave. (1)

 As the ceremony wraps up, Alita and Rook both spot something they cannot believe. They see the Captain moving through the back of the crowd. He is wearing a high collared cloak and a wide hat to hide his face, but both are sure as to what they have seen. They try to approach him, but he quickly flees in a speeder. Alita gets the ID tag info as it speeds away across the black sands back toward Vakeyya.

Once back in the city, the crew begins making preperations to leave. Varko goes to track down this Dug, Benkudi in the Southtown area of Vakeyya while Dex, Lofchiir and Rook return to the brewery to purchase the raava for Gleeko. Xet and Alita decide to look into the mysterious Captain look-alike by running the plates.

Benkudi, a slug of a Dug

Varko finds Benkudi easily and rescues him from being shaken down by a bunch of thugs outside a seedy tap-caf. The Dug rolls over easily and spills the info on Ree Bolanka, saying he is a good racer that works for the guy running a new, high stakes pod racing circuit over on Ando Prime. He says they have some scam running to take pod racing business away from the Hutts who have always had a strangle hold on racing, and more importantly, gambling in the region. He says the next race is due to start in less than a week and is sure that Ree is on Ando. Though the Ungasan Overland is held on a different course each time it is run, Benkudi gives the location of the most recent race and suggests that to be the starting point for any search on Ando Prime. 

Across town Dex, Lofchiir and Rook manage to secure the alcohol that Gleeko requested with no problems, though Dex and Lofchiir are scolded for their lewd and inappropriate behavior the previous night on brewery grounds. Meanwhile, Xet and Alita run across an interesting discovery. After tracking the speeder to a local rental place, they eventually cross paths with the mysterious stranger who looks just like the dead Captain. He introduces himself as Ingo Kabri, the Captain's brother. He thanks them for the beautiful service and explains that he, and the Captain, and their many other "brothers" are actually aging Clone Troopers from the Clone Wars so many years ago. He said that they all decided to leave the service of the Republic when they realized that something was not right. He says that there was a good number of Clone troops that did similar, though most were hunted down or died young due to poor life choices. He says he did not want to cause any trouble or stir up any undesirable emotions so he tried to stay in the back of the service and out of sight but he is glad that he got to talk to at least some members of the Captains old crew. He then bids them good day and leaves. 

Ingo Kabri, the Captain's "brother"

(1) adapted from "The Little Smuggler" by Henryka Łazowertówna. Wikipedia link.

Session Notes

What was supposed to be a quick, in-between action, sequence turned into a full blown role playing session. The players really got their characters thinking about how they wanted to honor the deceased Captain. It was very fun to watch them come up with ideas about a dead NPC that was never even really part of the game except to be a reason they were all together. This session really solidified the bond that the crew has for one another. It was also nice to see them break up into little teams and go about doing specific tasks that they were suited to doing. The division of labor in the group seems fairly well defined and everyone seems to understand their role in it. Well played, everyone!

Characters Present:

Dexen Halcyon, the cocky pilot from Ord Mantell played by +Daniel Ernst
Jetha "Rook" Rue'kri, the greedy Corellian smuggler played by +Carol Coburn
Varko Prumen, the selfless Mol Calamari scoundrel played by +Ben Lipe
Lofchirr, the charismatic, ex-pirate Wookie played by Don K
Xetsu'ae, the grizzled veteran Twi'lek former slave turned mechanic played by +Jodi H
Alita, the eagle eyed Socorran scout played by +JeCorey Holder

and +Jason Woollard as the GM