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The World of Georic 1989-Present

Tuesday, April 4, 2023

(Star Wars d6) #84 - A Jungle Interlude

The Crew of the Pretio in This Week's Episode 

Ne'vets Aharo - an exotic animal broker, both legal and otherwise, majority owner in the Pretio.

Duk'k - Sipsk'ud Bounty Hunter, recently rescued by the crew. Offering his services in order to get off this barely existing hunk of mud. His warning shots are dead center mass kill shots.

"Sid" - A peculiar woman who has shown to be a better pilot than the previous one. Possible Imperial ties, but a far better shot.
 
Latorna Savvn - Rebellion pilot and saboteur, trying to lay low from the Empire after a series and destructive attacks.

Evus - Twi'lek male, former slave, then former associate of Ne'vets, who has found his way back to the Pretio but caught back up in the nonsense of the Pretio

Travel By Galactic Map
Having successfully delivered illegal substances 
To the palace of Jabba the Hutt, the 
Crew of the Pretio are officially in a status 
Where they don't have a true plan. 

Old options are discussed, leads retraced, 
And a few harrowing experiences
Await the crew....

With the Pretio's shipment delivered, and no further desire to stay on a desert planet, Neve'ts and the crew decided to work their way back into at least the Mid-Rim to review their options and figure out the next course of action.  Although Latorna was never aware of the exact amount of the bounty on her head, much less the recent and significant reduction of it, it was still too hot to encounter routine Imperial patrols.  Stops to refuel and stretch out the legs would need be made on backwater worlds, even if they were on officer hyperlanes.  

Handing over the basic duties to R2-H8(r), it was just over a day before cries of "We're bored!" came from the crew.  It only took a few more minutes for Ne'vets to go full disclose with the crew about the sizable offer he had received to "go legit" and get government jobs with the Empire.  

Ne'vets informed them about the offer from the Imperial Science Corps to become Scientific Advisors to a research operation on the largely uninhabited planet, Myrkr.  Vague talk of lizards and massive applications derived from native flora was a bit confusing, even to Ne'vets, but the chance of a salaried job away from the direct oppression of the Empire, all the while under their dime and care sounded like a decent vacation for a few months at least.  They would have to review whatever agreements would need to be signed and hope that the terms would not change any further.  

"Of course," Ne'vets started, staring directly at Latorna and Sid, "that pair could give us some trouble going legit." 

Duk'k could only seethe sarcasm, "What, a wanted Rebel terrorist and a woman who identifies as "S-D"?  Whatever do you mean?

Upon speaking with Latorna, she was already working on a fresh alias, and only needed the appropriate credentials to make it happen. ("How does Maré Prolek sound?)  For a few more credits, she could probably get in contact with someone to do Sid's as well.  Ne'vets was satisfied so he returned to his cabin for find the contact info.  About an hour laid he called everyone back together.  

"One small problem, I seem to have misplaced the holodisk this Captain Zim or Zippy handed us, so we'll need to reach out of other Science Corps members and piece that together."  

Sid poke her head in, having heard the latter half the discussion, "Where do we start?"

"First scheduled stop was fuel and stretching out our legs on New Cov.  Mostly jungle, so some members of the Corps should be there..."

New Cov
They arrived at New Cov and immediately landed at the capital city of Illic.  Most of the planet was rampant jungle, quite deadly, but full of lucrative biomed implications, so most inhabitants lived inside domed cities and pressed their luck for riches in the jungle.  

After a few drinks in town, the crew went about their search for a Science Corps member and quickly discovered Cronzem Crett, an aged scientist  and explorer who had seen his fare share of battles against the creatures of New Cov, and won most of those battles.   He was willing to provided names of his administrators who further towards the core, in exchange for a paid tour of the planet.  Ne'vets couldn't say no to such an offer, and the away they went on five T-13 Airspeeders.

T-13 Airspeeder
The tour was legit, albeit set up for tourists rather than connoisseurs, but Ne'vets still loved every second of it, even if all of the creatures they saw were rather mundane, and there were no sign of the more dangerous (and profitable) beasts.  

Near the end of the tour, there was a marked area to land and go on foot a bit to observe some Green Covian Valley Primates.  There was an observation area to watch the creatures down below, and due to some reason, the primates never climbed out of the valley.

Until that day.  

Despite the group's best intentions of being vigilant, they were still surprise when three adolescent primates descended from the nearby trees and attacked Cronzem.  The crew scared them off with blaster fire, but Cronzem was badly injured, and the sound of more of these primates could be heard in the hills above the overlook.  Duk'k and Evus carried the explorer back to the airspeeders, with Ne'vets, Sid, and Latorna charged back to prep the vehicles.  They were met by a rapid-growing, fast moving, sentient infestation of the landing zone, already wrapping around the airspeeders.  Blasters and vibro-knives were enough to cut the ships loose, but the vines and other vegetation continued to advance.  

Without weapons on the ships, the crew was forced to used blaster fire to hold the plants at bay.   Duk'k and Evus finally emerged in the encroached landing zone to see the killer kudzu rend Cronzem T-13 in half.  Evus lept up, and was pulled up into the T-13 piloted by Latorna, while Duk'k through the Cronzem in the back of the last ship and frantically fired at all the surrounding plants before jumping in and punching it at high speed back to Illic.  

"I don't know about you, Ne'vets, but we are NOT using those guys as monkey butlers!"

They personally took Cronzem to the Pretio to have P3PP3R treat his wounds.  By dinner time, he was walking around with a larger limp than before, and with many thanks, he was dropped off at his house that night to sleep in his own bed.  

Before the Pretio left for another location, a grateful Cronzem met up with crew at a local cantina. 

"I'm about to file my report about the flora assault.  I'd like to document the aid of Duk'k and Evus, and vouch for the sincere help of Ne'vets and the others.  I'd recommend going to my admin's supervisor, Ferni Meavvo.  She's on Naboo.  Nice planet, if you avoid the cities."

Ne'vets rolled his eyes, "I can agree with that, thanks a bunch, for now can you just mention Maré Prolek and her mute pilot?"

"Don't know why, but sure?"

They left New Prov, and took an indirect route to Naboo, because there was no other way.  

Upon arrival orbitting Naboo, Duk'k's bounty hunter com made a strange noise.

Duk'k smiled as best he could.  "Best of luck, Latorna, we've got at least a lead on your brother."

"Great, where'd he end up."

"Naboo.  He hasn't left karking Naboo...."

GM Notes: With Ne'vets' player, Steve pushing really hard to inquire with Imperial opportunities, but having lost the contact info, it was necessary for the group to go through a quick montage of adventures to reconnect with Scientific Corps staff to find the people that offered them the job in the first place... or if it even was still available to begin with.  In the span of twenty-minutes after our usual session, we collaborated three separate adventures  that needed to take place to get back in touch with their contacts.  The episode above is a vastly elaborated version or what was described, although I can guarantee you the monkey butler comment was 100% accurate.  

In reality, I had completely misplaced the notes and had not finished the write-up for the session where they were offered the job to begin with.  Regardless of the final result of this process, the question remains, where did the gold holodisk with the offer and project security information disappear to?

Next: #85 - Back to Naboo

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