[IC] SWS/DnD5, Star Wars the Old Republic – A Gathering Darkness

[Sezarious]

Jihahna akwardly takes a step back, "Oh I didn't mean to offend. Nevermind. It was a silly suggestion anyway."

She looks to everyone after the Kwi has again spoken. "Soooo, what do we do then? Go to the mines in the mountains and warn them of the danger? Talk them into stopping? Sabotague the equipment, blow up the mine? Hell, use the force to convince them to leave?"

 

[GreenKarl]

About then the medium comlink that Jihahna is now carrying and turned to the mercenary chatter starts bursting a very large increase in com-chatter. Something has got the mercenaries excited or talking at least...

 

[Sezarious]

Jihahna, a little startled, snaps back into paranoia. She frantically yells at Thirteen, "Tell the Kwi that our listening tool says that those they fight to the south are doing something big right now, though we do not know what. Tell them to look about for danger."

With that, Jihahna grabs her rifle and moves to take cover behind a large log or something similar, facing away from the Kwi, but looking into other directions for hunters. "No no no no no..." She whispers under her breath. She readies herself rifle drawn, this time set to kill. She did not like ambushes... The last time she was ambushed...

She grits her teeth as the flash of the memory of the old man standing in the way of her rifle. "Arrrrgggh", in anger, she flips it back to stun. The hair that has fallen past her eyes hiding her face slightly, except for the glint in her eyes, her gritted teeth and her steely determined jaw. Sweat glistened on her face from the jungle heat and humidity, but she ignored it now.

OOC: Once again, likely an overreaction from Jihahna, but with all this talk of the force and demons and all the peaceful thoughts from her companions, with the strange feelings she has been getting from this planet, she is not herself. Readying her action to shoot at mercs, though NOT anything blue, because kwi are that colour, she would be just as paranoid about not hitting Kwi as she is about sudden attacks.

 

[GreenKarl]

Thirteen says in rely "The Kwi says that the outsiders are... hmm units? Legends? I don't know what unit of measurement it is trying to convey... but it says that they are not close. That you are the only outsiders close. The others are at the... swamp where the other tribes are leading them."

GM: EDIT -adding that you still have a general direction and distance of the com-chatter from the comlink right now. The mercs are in a southwesterly direction, maybe 3 or 4km away from your location

 

[Sezarious]

Slowing her breathing a little, Jihahna looks back at the Kwi and pauses a moment, before she shoulders her rifle. "Right I..." She looks away a moment. Embarrassment setting in. "Right".

She then shakes her head a moment, then responds, "Something happens right now. Maybe the Kwi attack them, or maybe they attack the Kwi".

She turns to the droid. "Thirteen, have you gathered enough data to prove Kwi sentience yet? What do we need exactly?"

 

[Trogdor1992]

"Well they seem capable of forming complex thoughts as well as having the ability to communicate. I'd say it's quite clear they are sentient, it even understands bargaining." Reks says, quite matter-of-factly.

 

[GreenKarl]

Thirteen nods, "Yes Mistress Jihahna, I do believe that we have made the cast for the Kwi being sentience. As Master Reks points out this one seems to be able to understand and can bargain."

After a moment of processing further thoughts, the droid adds "But will Czerka accept my program notes? Will they require additional information or a live Kwi whom they could communicate with? They have been very resistant to all evidence to the contrary to the idea that the Kwi are simply 'smart' animals."

"But this will strengthen the Republic Survey's case in court if need be"

 

[Binder Fred]

Jihahna akwardly takes a step back, "Oh I didn't mean to offend. Nevermind. It was a silly suggestion anyway."

jumble drone hum "No offense, Jihahna Darut." She tilts her head, guttural slurr "This one is replaceable." guttural whirr click drone click "He does not need to be defended?"

During the ambush scare, the gand's poncho barely stirs. But it's to the right, near the hip.

Whatever the Survey's case in court, guttural cruck drone jumble whirr clack "These ones will need time to talk to the ones who dig." The gand starts slowly walking forward until she's looking almost straight up at the small hill of muscles and blue hide. click jumble mubble drone slurr warble "Please tell your tribe to be patient, Kwi warrior?" He removes his communicator and offers to insert it around the Kwi's wrist after locking it on the group's frequency. click guttural whirr mumble whirr "The kwi can contact these ones using this."


OOC: If it accepts he'll show it how to press the 'transmit' button.

 

[Sezarious]

"But this will strengthen the Republic Survey's case in court if need be"

Jihahna nods at Thirteen's response... "Thirteen, is there any further evidence we could gather from the Kwi for the courts? I'd say we will likely need to leave things to court powers in order to stop Czerka from hurting the Kwi. Would it help for you to see and record data on their tools and so on? Their villages? Would one of their spears be useful evidence? Somehow, I doubt Czerka would listen to any of the evidence we present."

She turns to the Gand. "I guess the bigger problem is that even if we can get the courts to stop Czerka attacking the Kwi, that won't stop the Kwi from attacking Czerka, because they believe Czerka is waking up their... Dark gods i guess."

She takes a breath, "Okay, fine, so when we have reached THAT point, we have two choices I guess, stop the Kwi from attacking the miners, or stop the miners from mining, or stop them from mining in the mountains. To figure out which of those things we need to do, we have to find out more about the mine right?"

She pauses a moment longer. "Furthermore, if we find any indication of 'guardians' or 'demons', or temples in which these things could reside, could we potentially have the mountains declared a sacred site of the Kwi? Or does proving Kwi sentience give Kwi the right to the resources on this planet? If so, then all we need to do is get our current information to the republic along with the Kwi wishes."

 

[Shayuri]

All through it, Kacela listened quietly. Her mind was racing though as she tried to assemble the tiny pieces of evidence together, gluing them with stick suppositions gleaned from the Kwi's legends.

Something was in the mountains. Something old, and powerful, and steeped in the Dark Side of the Force. Even now, it stirred slightly.

The Kwi called it a 'guardian' of a 'demon.'

The Kwi had also been somehow entirely cut off from the Force. She didn't think it was a natural thing...it was nearly impossible to contemplate something being -naturally- cut off. Under most circumstances, she would view such a thing as a terrible cruelty.

But on a planet where some vast Dark Side presence kept vigil over something even more terrible, perhaps it wasn't cruel at all.

"The mining will have to stop," she said with finality. "The best tool at our disposal to accomplish that is to force Czerka to acknowledge that the Kwi are sentient inhabitants of the planet, and therefore any mining rights must be agreed to by them. They will never agree to it, therefore Czerka will have to stop. These things, if we are successful, will be subject to Republic laws and enforcement."

With a nod, Kacela looked at the others. "So our course is clear. We stop the mercenaries, present our evidence to Czerka and the Republic representatives, and put an end to this before the situation becomes immeasurably worse. To this swamp then?"

There was more, of course. There was always more. But questions of the shadowy figure glimpsed, and the hint of the Dark Side being used, would be something for her and Reks to follow up on, at least at first. She didn't want them to think this was some 'Jedi crusade.'