Knights of the Old Republic - IC

[Karl Green]

The group at Landing Port North copies all the files they can and head back to the locking port area, when they notice a large number of people have gathered around outside the bay doors. They look mostly like traders and merchant captains and when one of them see the group of Jedi moving they way she calls back to the crowd “Hoi, it be dem, da Jada it is!”

The crowd starts calling out to them as they try and push their way through, stuff like “When you going to get us off this rock!?”, “When is the JumpBeacon going to be working again??” and “When are you going to deal with the raiders?”

They seem a bit upset about being stuck here on the planet with little chance of leaving into until the JumpBeacon is repaired or replaced. They do not try and stop the Jedi from making their way to their airspeeder through, but there is more muttering about where the Jedi might be going and why they are not ‘fixing’ the problem right now…

After dealing with this small distraction, the group mounts up into the airspeeder, with Serrana behind the controls and settles in for a long trip south.

Meanwhile, at Casino City, the Jedi there start seeking out any information they can find about the dark force users at Popottus the Hutt’s palace.

After an exhausting six hours (and 500 credits spreading around), Jade finds a Sullustan named Myrufkin Krnus, who smells of cheap spice wine and to many weeks without a bath. He claims that he was once a droid tech for the great Popottus the Hutt but then displeased the great Hutt in some way that he claims was someone else fault entirely.

Asked about any strange happenings that might be of an unnatural origin, he says that two of Popottus the Hutt’s favorite Twi’lek dancing girls, who happen to be twin sisters, are also his most dangerous guards and ‘enforcers’ and that they are rumored to be witches by most of the staff. Krnus fears these two more then almost anyone else, and only Popottus the Hutt’s main enforcer, a “crazy” Wookiee bounty hunter named Hanharr, scares him more.

Krnus starts muttering “He be crazies as it be dry here on dis dust bowl of a planet… wears a necklace of da fingers of dhose he done killed he does” and then promptly falls asleep (or passes) out and starts to snore loudly.

Those in the airspeeder are only about five minutes out from the landing pad where the Jewel is parked.

 

[Caros]

Nicolas did his best to assist in the search for the files, doing his own in head analysis of what they came up with, most of his time spent between assisting Serrena with the record keeping, and watching the battle ROMs that Arro had come up with.

He was little surprised with their findings, perhaps the only real shock coming in that the locals knew to attack communication centers, indicating that they were not only granted modern technowledgy, but were being capably led in these raids. It bespoke planning far beyond simple anger at the republic, too methodical, instead it seemed to be intentional destablization.

"Czerka is not helping matters at all with thier bounties and their relocation projects, it is small wonder that the natives are up in arms, being confined and restricted as they are. In my estimation it is at least a large section of the problem rather than the symptom." He paused as they made their way through the crowds, face stoic as they boarded and began making for Casino City. "That said... This plotting is not as simple as it appears. Consider, the locals likely did not search out their benefactor, which means he or she already had plans for the planet even without Czerka. But to what gain I wonder.

He sighed, staring out the viewport as he slowly closed himself down to the force, doing his best to hide his own nature as a force-sensitve as they went inbound towards the city. "Though I would take some primitive enjoyment in saying 'I told you so' in regards to this force user, I wonder if their presence is not merely incidental. In any case, if we can sense them they likely sense those already in the city. We should conceal ourselves in the hope that our undetected presence can allow us to act independantly. And as far as the mastermind, I don't believe we should rule out Czerka corp. Their crackdown makes little sense considering the trouble it has caused, And though I am not certain what they would gain from the planet being 'lost' I would not put it past them to attempt to do so."

OOC: Sorry for the belated posts the last few days. Landlord is doing a walkthrough to determine if I get to keep living here, so sorta stressed with cleaning =(

 

[Shalimar]

Jade wrinkles her nose when the disgusting creature finally passes out. Rising she gestures her companions back towards landing pad and her ship. The other Jedi shouldn't be too much longer, and then they'd have to compare notes.

"It looks like we will be paying a visit to Popottus the Hutt in his palace. I don't know if he is the force user or not, but with such a volatile situation we need to investigate any lead, and a dark sider could mean sith and that we need to investigate regardless."

"Once the others arrive, we should pay him a visit, hopefully peaceful. But we must be prepared for anything. Its a good bet he knows we are here, and the why. He might consent to aide us if the disruption isbad for his business."

 

[Karl Green]

At Casino City...

Quickly making their way out of the Lucky Wamprat where they had meet poor Krnus; Elan, Jerac and Jade make their way back to the landing pad area where the Star Jewel is parked and very shortly see the airspeeder with the remaining members of the group.

Serrana glides the ship in for a graceful landing and the group is reunited…

 

[drothgery]

Serrana Vao, Twi'lek Soundrel 5/Jedi 1 48/48 HP (no conditions)

Serrana quickly fills the others in on what happened back in Landing Port. "... so someone is definitely supplying modern weapons to the natives, which we all suspected before we left. Czerka is pushing the natives harder than we were told, again not surprising. And someone's pushing the Republic very hard to go along with it. I wish I knew what all this meant." She concluded. "I can at least make some sense out of a small-time smuggling operation."

 

[Shalimar]

"To be expected, it would require modern weaponry and training to blow the beacon and perform the raids. It seems to confirm our supposition that the Pure have a benfactor." she agrees as the twi'lek explains what the other group had found.

"That may or may not be connected to what we have found on our end. I'd normally leave the Hutt and his operation alone, but with at least one Dark Sider, possibly two, involved in things... This is not the situation to be blindsided in, not with these stakes. If we can avoid antagonizing Popottus all to the good, but I think it was the will of the force for us to notice this, and not to be ignored."

 

[Falkus]

"Popottus is almost certainly a criminal," Talesa added. "We must be cautious in dealing with him. He may refuse to assist us simply because we are Jedi. Worse, he may deliberately mislead us. I do not wish to have any dealings with him, but you are correct that we must investigate this dark sider."

 

[Maeglin]

“Be wary of your assumptions, my friends,” Elan Xandar Renn said. “We must proceed without preconceived notions. The darksider may very well be a Sith, or he or she may not.”

“Any sentient being born with a strong connection to the Force may be seduced to the Dark Side, regardless of their training, or lack thereof.”

“This darksider we sense may be Popottus himself, or one of his Twi’lek slaves, or this wookiee so feared in these parts. It may even be someone hidden in the Hutt’s organization, manipulating events behind the throne, so to speak.”

“So, shall we seek an audience with Popottus undercover, or shall we go in as Jedi?”

 

[drothgery]

"Given this Hutt's taste in ... entertainment ... I'm keeping my blaster and my lightsaber in plain sight." Serrana said. "Might well cause some trouble, but no one with any brains attacks a Jedi on sight, and six well-armed kids with a battle droid in tow, at least one of them clearly pretty wealthy, are going to draw eyes no matter what disguise we come up with."

 

[Falkus]

"As well, we made no secret of our identity at Landing Port North. If this Hutt has any sort of information gathering network, he already knows our identity as Jedi, or at least Nicolas, Serrana and I."