The pass through the Barrier and into the canyon was a narrow one. Steer rocky ridges on both sides hemmed them in. It was a short walk through the pass, which was about the width of a landspeeder then it opened into the canyon. The canyon was wider than the pass and the sides are not so steep and rocky with many nooks and crannies. Ahead the canyon opens up further and if Arno was correct would lead them to Tusken Fort.

"So... Hummm... Anyone have any... humm... ideas of what.... hummm... we do... hummm... at fort?", asks Oglo.  "Looks of Sandpeople... Humm... there, I bet.  Hrmmm... Would be nice... hrmmm... to have bio-weapon.", he then said.  It's hard to tell if he is joking, serious, or just rubbing a bit of salted irony into Tera's wounds.

It was a tense walk through the pass, with Lyla anxiously watching the cliff tops for signs of tumbling rocks or blaster fire. Trapped like desert rats in a trap, it would be easy for someone to ambush them. She didn't feel any safer as the pass widened into a canyon, though, being too far to run back and too exposed. Yeah, none of this was safe.

"We knock on the front door, I guess." Lyla said. "We could say we're selling Scout Trooper biscuits, but I've only ration bickies."


OOC: Perception 11

Tera stared at Oglo. "So Sand People should be made extinct too, Oglo? Do you have a compelling reason for this? Oh perhaps we'll just say they're irredeemably violent and don't deserve to live. Or maybe they don't accept Imperial authority and as a result they should all die. Or maybe their skin is repellent and we don't need that in the galaxy." Tera's eyes narrowed "No matter who or what the race, no one deserves to be condemned due to their biology."

Inwardly pleased that he hit a nerve, Oglo also feels disgusted with himself that he had implied that all Sandpeople needed to be wiped out.  Although there are a lot of people on Tatooine who would agree with this sentiment, the Ithorians don't even have a word for "genocide" in their own language.  Killing one is abhorrent, killing a lot is unspeakable in their own language, and killing a whole race is inconceivable.  Earlier he hadn't been paying much attention to Tera's life story.  He only got that the Empire did something unspeakable with her work and stuck her with the blame.  The details he tuned out.

Flustered, he replied rapidly, "Oglo only saying... Three against a fort... We need a weapon .... to kill a lot.... to even the odds.  Since you can't get... bioweapon from a stone... We need a plan.  This gap would be... good place to fight... if we had bombs.  This is hopeless... you both know that."  Without all the muttering in his own language, his words go by more swiftly.  It's almost like a normal person talking... although one with a short lung capacity.  The part of his brain that works out speech in his own language was working on other possible tactics, one that involve using deception and fear.  Again, he felt disgusted with himself for even thinking about such things, but if they were to have a chance, this was the only chance they would have.  The plus side was that any way they could avoid a fight would be better than fighting.

"Did Oglo ever say... what all he can do?  Oglo good at... moving rocks... far from himself.  A rock tumbles off a cliff... We say we not alone... More of us up... on cliffs, hidden.  A lie, but one... Oglo can try to sell.  Oglo can also make... strange, loud noises.  They can frighten... or hurt.", he said laying out some possible tricks he could use to even the odds.

Lyla had tried to ignore the clueless Ithorian's babbling, but when it jabbed at Tera she pitched in. "No, Sand People don't deserve to be wiped out. Spacers invaded their world and took their land, and they're fighting back the only way they know, and the settlers think the same. We don't understand each other to make peace, and we'll keep hurting each other until we do." she sighed for the endless cycle of violence on this world. She was pleased that Tera didn't sound like a Butcher of Bokur, anyway.

"It's a bit late to worry about this being hopeless or dangerous — that's what we were arguing about outside, remember? You wanted to charge on in, then." she pointed out, wondering about the Ithorian's strange about-face.

She turned to Oglo and explained carefully "Oglo, I can move rocks far from myself. It's called 'throwing'. And you make lots of strange, loud noises that frighten or hurt people, just like you did to Tera just now."

"Let's just move on to Fort Tusken. We won't know anything until we see the situation there."

With that, the twi'lek ranger peeled off to scout the ground ahead, wondering who or what had come down this way recently.


OOC: Perception (tracking) 19

Tera shook her head at the Ilthorian, looking disappointed more than angry as she shuffled behind Lyla. "I'm less of a planner and more of a doer. My doing will consist of throwing grenades and shooting things....if I can. By the time we get to the fort, I'll be ready for a long rest. Next time we borrow the landspeeder over its current owners objections." she folded her arms. "I'm sure whoever we meet will be amenable to trade."

As the twin suns Tatoo I and Tatoo II rise up to soak the barren deserts in their fierce and hot rays the pass is eerily quiet. Beasts and creatures of the desert may be hiding in the rocks of the pass but they stay out of sight and move as little as possible.

None of the rebels spot any signs of the ambush they expected to be sprung on them by Sandpeople. However what happened next was not what they expected. A thunderous rumble came from up ahead, followed by the sight of a large cloud of dust rushing closer.

Being not oblivious to the loud, rumbling sounds, Oglo voiced out in his hurried fashion, "That not good.   Flash flood, stampede, ... or rock slide.  Find cover."  He then looked to either side at the canyon walls for a crevice or an alcove he could squeeze himself into to get out of the path of whatever was sweeping his way.

OOC:
Oglo Obwatt rolled 16 using 1d20+8. Perception  (search).
This message was last edited by the player at 22:58, Tue 04 June 2013.

Lyla crouched over the sand, inspecting the deep, wide footprint, seeing rows of them going up and down the pass. Not to mention the dollops of grassy dung here and there. Bantha herd, she surmised. Sand People rode and herded bantha, she knew, but free-roaming herds were also common. Both would come down here. She stood up to look further afield.

It began as a soft vibration in her tails, before rising up through her feet and bones into a thundering roar. "Bantha stampede!" she cried, heart thudding with alarm. "This way!" Lyla pointed and ran directly across the canyon, across the banthas' path, to take shelter by the canyon walls.


OOC: Perception 27, rolled a 20.
Assuming this is an encounter, then: Fringe Savant, gain one free temporary Force Point.

Tera blinked rapidly as Lyla suggested a stampede was incoming, running exactly the way Lyla was leading. Lowering her head she ran as fast as she could to get out of the way of the herd. She found it remarkable that she was willing to trust the word of someone only a few moments earlier looked like she was ready to shoot.

Warned by the others Mallox leaped to the side of the canyon and hid like the others.

As everyone sought shelter in the rocks along the walls of the pass out of the cloud of sand came a herd of Bantha. The Banthas trampled the ground and roared as they passed. The nooks and crannies of the wall were enough to hide it but the noise, shaking and sand penetrated into the shadowed darkness. Small rocks rained down upon them and smaller grit got in their clothes, eyes, ears and noses.

[OOC Lyla can retain her temporary Force Point until the stampede has gone.]

Tera spluttered under the assault from the bits of sand and dust. "hmmmm...an obvious warning. I have to admit I'm much more impressed by whoever is doing this than I was before. the warnings are gradated for maximum effect. I wonder what we'll see next. Some form of warning shot?" Tera wiped down her face. Inhaling bantha droppings not really on her plan for a good day. She covered her mouth with part of the cloth around her neck.

As she ran for shelter, Lyla felt for all the world like the banthas were chasing her, specifically, and a cold stab of terror shot down her back and tails. Cruk cruk cruk! Finally, just in the nick of time, she was in the crevice, and Lyla pressed herself against the wall as much as she could, lest a bantha come close enough to step on her toes. Quickly she pulled out the veil of her coat and clutched it over her mouth, and pulled her hood down to shelter her eyes, to cover against flying dust and stones and debris. She also folded down her ears to block out the deafening roar.

She looked back, glimpsing a figure riding the lead bantha. No, not riding. Tied to. A dead bounty hunter. Now she almost regretted driving those bantha to stampede against the bounty hunters back at Oasis. Almost. She looked further, to see what was coming behind?


OOC: Knowledge (Lore) 26 - Would Sand People do this?

She watched the banthas go past, one after another, on and on, so many of them. She doubted she'd ever seen this many banthas in one place before in her life. She easily surmised what had caused this, who could gather so many bantha and would drive them to charge over a farm or caravan to crush all in their path. When she had a chance to be heard over the thundering roar, Lyla shouted back "It looks like Sand People did this, alright. Look, there are the bridles, bantha tacks... I've never heard of anyone else doing anything this big before... And these banthas, too accurate for bounty hunters. Only Sand People are so precise."


:D

When the coast was clear, Oglo stared back at the others through the dust from the nook he found on the other side of the canyon.  "Well that was.... Hrmmm... exciting.", he spoke back to the others.  His visions hadn't predicted this, but then the future is a rather hazy thing.  The past comes in much more clearly because it's always the same.

Sandpeople doing this seemed likely to Oglo as well, but he had his misgivings.  Sending your livestock off on a stampede sounded like a culturally suicidal thing for a nomadic people to do.  Sure, tamed Banthas could be herded up again, but it would take time and undoubtedly some will have been injured going through the narrow gap at the end of the canyon.  There were other more direct, less cowardly, ways of dealing with intruders.  Oglo had a feeling that not all the bountyhunters were killed out in the desert.  But he didn't want to voice his opinion.  There was no time for making an argument.

It was bone shaking and deafening until the last Bantha has crashed passed their sanctuary in the uneven walls of the canyon. The dust settled and the noise faded away as the herd continued on their rampage. The pass onto and to Tusken Fort was once more clear and empty.
This message was last edited by the GM at 21:16, Fri 07 June 2013.

"And here they come." Lyla muttered, gesturing to the dark figures moving along the edge of the cliff. She raised her blaster rifle, using the scope for a closer look. She wished she could afford a pair of electrobinoculars, but the Rebellion wouldn't pony up the cash and she didn't have the time to dance on tables for them. At least this kept her rifle handy.


OOC: Zooming in on them. Perception 17 or whatever you rolled.

"Lo9oking at them through a rifle scope would not, I imagine engender anything other than a sense of 'we're going to get shot' amongst the crowd moving around up there." Tera glanced furtively up the sides of the pass. "As much as I hate to say this, I think we're better off just moving on. They'll get to us when and if they need to."

"Yes, come to fight... Hrmm.... we did not... Humm... Well, fight we will... Humm... maybe.  Humm... Aiming though... Hummm... won't help.", said Oglo in agreement with Tera.  "Let them... Hummm... attack first.  Hrmmm... Easier for me."

"Unfortunately, I don't have a pair of electrobinoculars." Lyla turned her rifle sideways, anyway, so her posture wasn't aggressive.