Star Wars: Prologue

"Well that just figures," says Ka'den. "Keep your wits about you, Ad'ika." He follows the guards without any further complaint.

Ka'den notices the lack of signs, which convinces him even more that their new hosts are force-users. "Can't be telepaths," he thinks, "Or else we wouldn't have had such a hard time understanding each other."

The food looks very appealing, and Ka'den realizes that it's been quite some time since he ate last. Seeing the woman healing Sade's ankle, Ka'den supposes that poison in the food wouldn't make any sense--and he has a sneaking suspicion that the flowers might have a special significance to these people, so he removes his helmet, dips a petal, and begins eating it. It is good, but Ka'den wishes he had something spicy and full of meat and heavy calories instead. Preferring to stand (sitting on an upholstered couch is quite difficult in full beskar'gam, after all), Ka'den paces around the room while he eats.

When the gate comes down, an automatic reflex makes him draw the k-23, but he doesn't fire. Seeing their hosts still in the room, and not acting aggressively, Ka'den apologizes and holsters the weapon. Suddenly he has a fleeting memory of stories of travelers taken in by strange people who treat them like monarchs, and then on the next day sacrifice them to a god or deity--which of course is considered a great honor to the locals, and hence the rich treatment. He quickly realizes that if these people do have a god or deity they are so devoted to that they are willing to perform living sacrifices, then they keep it very well hidden, because he hasn't seen a single sigil, emblem, statue, or icon since they entered the city. This relaxes him a little, but not much--he's still trapped in a cage. Smiling grimly at the guards and ladies, Ka'den turns to Sade. "Well, I suppose it's safe to talk in Basic...what do you think about our situation?"

Sade stares hard at the gate. It starts to shake and then lifts. The guard turns and extends his hand, however, and the gate falls down again.

Sade seems quite startled at what he's just done, and clearly has no idea how he did it. He turns white as the ice sheets of Alderaan and his lower lip trembles. He sits down on the couch in a daze.

Sade reaches out a trembling hand for one of the petal wraps and lifts it trembling to his mouth and then takes a drink of the nectar. At last he calms down.

"I have no idea how I just did that," he says, appearing somewhere between pleased at finding a new ability and terrified at having no idea what it is or how to control it; he appears closer to the latter.

[OOC: Roll to lift the gate.]

Ka'den watches Sade and his jaw almost drops. Before doing anything else, he casually sits down next to Sade, quietly eating. Slowly he replaces his helmet. "I don't know what you just did there either, you sneaky shabuir, but do you think you can do it again?" he asks quietly. "Because if you can lift the gate, I can hold off these guards." Since the drawing of his weapon signaled no alarm from the guards, that can only mean one of two things; they either aren't afraid of conventional blasters, or they don't know what they are. With the heightened gravity, Ka'den knows that the Verp will be less effective, so he moves his right hand to the k-23 and his left to the short sword, just in case, and he waits for Sade.

"If you think you can do that again," says Ka'den, "Then just say 'go'."

"I don't know," Sade says. "I can try..."

Sade concentrates hard on the door and again it lifts up.

[OOC: Sade's roll.

Kaden draws his blaster with a lightning-quick reflex, and shoots repeatedly (three times) at one of the guards, while rushing the other with the short sword. He makes a thrusting attack at the guard's gut while bringing his right hand around and striking at the throat, still holding the k-23, and ejects a long vibroblade from his gauntlet just before impact. On impact, he fires the k-23 point-blank. Then he brings the sword up for a slashing attack at the guard's face.

(OOC: boy, I sure hope these people aren't really the peaceful and generous type that they've been made to look like. :-P )

Ray was sitting with his back up against one of the native trees. Ray didn't know how long he had been sitting there but it was like coming out of a fuzzy haze. The first thing Ray noticed was that Lirc was sitting next to him scanning the area. Without hesitation Ray reached for something inside his pocket. He took a small bottle out and started to open it but before he could he fell over to his side and dropped the bottle. "Quickly" Ray blurted out! " give me one." Ray knew he was going back into a stupor.

As quickly as he could Lirc gave Ray one of the capsules from the bottle. After about a half hour Ray came around again. Ray thanked Lirc for saving his life and told him how the Cerean peopel had binary brains and thus had problems with migraine. They could be so severe that it could send one into a coma of death. fortunately the Cereans had created a formula to keep one from falling into the coma of death. Ray would have to deal with a splitting headache but at least he had his bearings and he wasn't going to die....well at least not yet hahaha. The crash had given him such a jolt that he had a migraine that almost killed him yet he still had a sense of levity.

OCC: Sorry everyone for my story hiatus!

OOC1: The likelihood of hitting the guards is 60%.
OOC2: Welcome back, Seth.

Ka'den's first shot goes wide, but his second is a solid hit, bringing the guard down. The third, with no target, scores the wall.

The sword attack is dodged by the guard, as is the knife attack. The blast to the guard's face hits dead on, but the guard seems to absorb the blast. The knife attack misses.

The two remaining guards extend out their hands, one towards Ka'den, one towards Sade. The guard facing Ka'den hurls* the Mandalorian back into the cell. The one facing Sade does the same*, slamming the boy against the wall and knocking the wind out of him. The cell comes crashing down.

One of the women runs out of the room, presumably to report the incident.
*I set a percentile of 50%.

Lirc was glad to see Ray out of his comatose-like state. The search for their employer had been going nowhere thus far. "Alright, big brains, we've hiked about one kilometer from our crash site into the mountains somewhat. Can you remember what trajectory the other escape pod was travelling at when we both hit atmosphere prior to our landing? It would be a great help on our search to find our blue friend."

Se'ethor does not remember the trajectory.

OOC: Feel free to respond, Seth; I was just making the roll for you. The percentile was 50%.

"I'm sorry I don't remember anything after we got into the pods...I believe the only course of action left to us is to make an educated guess and get underway. I know that the time was not wasted saving my life but time sure does fly when your in a comatose state" Ray ended the statement with a chuckle.

"The Mandalorian and the kid went into the ruins over yonder. They're going to see if the inhabitants have any information either about a way offworld or our friend. I figured that with your brains and my skills, we could make an attempt to find her."

Lirc helped Ray to his feet once the Cerean stopped looking like he was in a stupor. "I figure our best first step would be to find the highest peak in the area to look for another area where it looks like the trees have been knocked down by an escape pod. Our pod crash site was to the Southeast, so we can compare that forest crater there to any others we may see. Any other ideas?"

Ka'den is surprised that the first guard went down so easily, but more surprised that the second guard was able to deflect all of his close combat attacks.

"Shab, that's the last straw," he says as he hits the wall, quickly regaining his balance. He slides the Westar-M5 from off his shoulder, and lets out a spray of plasma at both guards, while covering Sade with his body. "Do it, Ad'ika, do it again!" He suddenly finds himself willing the gate to open as well, his mind concentrated on the bars of durasteel even while he watches the blue flashes of plasma crackling through the air towards the guards.

OOC1: Yay! Seth is back! :-D
OOC2: Are the guards on the inside or outside of the cell? I thought they were inside, but they threw us back in, which sounds like they're outside (or else they would have 'pulled' us back in).

OOC3: Actually, isn't there only one guard left at this point? Or did one more come in?

OOC: There are two guards left; you only killed one. They are outside the cell. Oh, and it's been too long since I've used percentile dice; I've been reading the rolls wrong. It would be too difficult to go back and change everything that's happened so far, but the number is supposed to be less than the target percentile, not more.

IC (as Sade):

Sade concentrates on the gate, hoping to reopen the gate. He fails and nothing happens.

OOC as GM: The target number was 70%.

OOC: Haha, I was actually wondering about that. I checked the rolls and went, "Wait, huh?" So I would have totally aced those two guards up the wall if the rolls had been right. :-P

BTW, How did the second attack on the guards go?

OOC: Sorry, just reread your post...missed your attacks somehow. Because you're firing through a grate, there's a 40% chance of hitting.

Ka'den lets out several blasts at the guards through the grates of the holding cell while trying to protect Sade. The first attack hits, and the guard is wounded. The second attack just barely grazes the second guard's shoulder.

A moment later the door of the room opens and the old man from the tower enters, accompanied by an entourage of ten guards plus Telaanwique. He does not seem afraid, but he seems sad. He begins speaking to you in sad and disappointed tones, probably upbraiding you for betraying his hospitality. He reaches out his hand and your weapons fly away from you--right through the grate. He waves his hand and they settle inside a large urn in the corner of the room. He does not know about Sade's hold-out blaster; that's still in Sade's hidden holster.

Not wanting to play all his cards at once, Ka'den hesitates from using any of the built-in weapons on his armor. He points at the old man and then at the closed gate, and he motions up with his hand, to mimic the gate opening, while shaking his head. "I know you don't speak Basic, or Mando'a, or Ryl, or Bocce, or Huttese, or any civilized language, but I'm not cooperating with you any further until you set us free. If you can't understand us, bring an interpreter, or by Manda'yaim, I will level this place!" He points to the old man, then grabs his own wrist tightly, and releases it with an exaggerated gesture, then indicates himself and Sade. After a pause, he shakes his head and points at the body of the fallen guard(s) [<--OOC: I lost count :-P]. Then while he waits for their reaction, he slowly opens one of his hands, turning the palm towards the urn. A flick of his wrist, and he can activate the electromagnets in his glove, and draw his guns back. Or he could use other, more subtle options. He quickly calculates the best way to bring all the guards--and the old man--down together if he needs to.

"Sade..." Ka'den uses the kid's real name for the first time since the voyage started. "Get ready to fight for everything you're worth. We've only got one chance at this."

OOC: Can the percentile-to-hit be raised when I use the M5? It is after all roughly the equivalent firepower of a Z-6 rotary battery packed into an assault rifle's body. :-P

OOC: Yes. But a note on those magnets...unless you get the door open they won't be doing you any good. Your weapons aren't small enough to fit through the grates, except maybe the shatter gun.

IC (as Sade): Sade slips his hand into his right hand into his jacket and prepares to draw his hold-out blaster, his other hand into the other side to grip one of his throwing knives.

"I'll follow your lead," Sade says grimly. "Just remember that my blaster only has ten shots and I only have two throwing knives."

"Then only *throw* one of them..." says Ka'den with a grin, still waiting for a reply or a movement from the old man and his guards.

OOC: I see. That's alright, I got other plans. What's happening with Lirc and Se'ethor?

Lirc and Se'ethor continued on their trek until they reached the highest peak in the area and looked for a break in the forest canopy, keeping in mind the location of their own escape pod crash site, which they could see to the southwest. The peak was just above the treeline, so the terrain up top was a mingling of small sapling plants and rocks. Lirc pulled out a pair of macrobinoculars and began his search...

Ka'den slowly moves towards the door, keeping his eyes and sensors trained on the old man and his guards. "Come on then, Ad'ika. We mustn't wear out our welcome..." As Ka'den passes under the gate, he points at his and Sade's weapons sitting in the urn, and slowly reaches to pick them up, so as not to alarm any of the guards.