The old Gutretee shook his head at Rynn “the canyon has fallen on your wave. It will take a long time to move the crystal rocks. We must be on our wave soon, we fol-low the crystal o-cean and the fish that swim in its sea” the Gutretee spoke slowly and its understanding of Basic was perhaps flawed in some ways.

To Lyla the old shaman scratched at his crystal head “to the place where the Reb-els ride to the sky it will be night when we arrive” he looked at the gathered tribe “our tribe is too small maybe Reb-els can move your wave” he suggested.

"Wave?  No thanks.... hrrrmmm... I forgot to bring... hrmmm... my surfboard.", replied Oglo.  He pictured the natives surfing on waves of crystal using crystal surfboards.  Oglo tried to picture himself surfing on a wave of crystal.  Whether body surfing or surfing on a proper board, either way seemed unsafe for one with as squishy a body as him.

Lyla was fascinated by the notion of a crystal ocean, complete with sea creatures and waves and these Gutretee riding its currents and tides. It sounded amazing. Going mostly from Ryloth to Tatooine, she'd barely even seen a real liquid ocean. She looked up and around the canyon, trying to picture the plateaus and high spires as the crests and peaks of a rippling sea. Maybe they shouldn't stay here too long then. Who knew when and how such waves would come crashing back down?

Lyla would have liked to stayed with the Gutretee a while, learning their ways and their world, but knew a lack of food and a society based around tests of strength would be the end of her. And she doubted travel by "wave" would be safe for the squishy humanoids. Still, she had to ask 'Are you able to take us to the Rebel starport — where they ride to the sky? We won't get lost or dropped or crushed or stabbed by crystals or whatever? We're not as resilient as you.'

With her new experience in the Gutretee thanks to Iponta's memories. Tera tried to interpret what the shaman meant by "travel by wave" to determine if it would be safe for everyone to travel on to get to the starport.

Klyn will make one last attempt at the computer data - his usual feelings towards imperial a bit dimmed : that man's team seemed close and loyals... they just had picked the wrong side - without much hope: the damage was too extensive.


He then went outside to find an unexpected gathering.

"What's going on here?"

"We are at one with the crystals. The crystal wave car-ry us. It is safe for new-com-ers" the old shaman answered Lyla. From the memories Tera had imported she could see glimpses of times other Rebels had travelled by the Gutretee crystal waves and not been harmed.

As everyone talked Klyn emerged from the Wanderer he saw about twenty five humanoids all made from crystal. They talked in Basic and were being as helpful as they could.

"Well I for one don't see that we have any other choice." Rynn said through his amplifier to the others in the group. "Thank you for being willing to take us there." he said to the shaman.


When Klyn came out he laughed and said. "Well, they questioned our honor so we had to fight them. If we lost we would have lost our lives, but Tera saved us all. Now the tribe has offered to take all back to the star port." he said deadpan. "Oh and you missed that too, they can ride on the crystals and thats how we are getting back."

'Yeah, thanks. We'll decide what to do with our, uh, wave and get back to you.' Lyla told Yustavan as Klyn returned.

She joined the mechanic, adding after Rynn 'Yep, Tera's the strongest...' The scout looked to the sky and the setting sun, estimating how long they had. It was setting now, and Yustavan had said it would be night by the time they got to the starport, suggesting it wasn't long. 'We need to ride the crystal wave, and I don't mean getting high... The Gutretee are leaving in two shakes of a Twi'lek's tails, and I reckon we'll be at the starport quicker their way.'

Tera nodded "It's safe for us to use as a mode of transport." she said,  sounding confident. "And it wasn't to the death, they'd have just absorbed parts of our life is all."

As they talked Yustavan gestured for the Gutretees to line up. The crystal people formed up into rows of five. The shaman waved for the Rebel to come join them.

OOC Is there anything else anyone wants to do before we move on?

Klyn was a bit surprised by what he had missed.
The prospect of leaving the Gold to get to the spatioport did not really suit him.

"You are certain they would help us get back here to get the ships out?" he asked Rynn
"Otherwise I could follow you from above"

Tera looked at the shaman quizzically "Do you know where I might find some Blue and Grey crystals nearby?

OOC:I'm using blue and grey as placeholders for however they're referred to locally.

In reply to Klyn Cors (msg # 137):

Rynn nodded to the Human. "I'll make sure they get you back out here. They have to come back for the X-wing after all." Rynn said. He was antsy about getting the wave going. He wanted to get back to warn the starport about the Imps. Surely they were on alert, they knew there was an Imp ship in the area, and that Rynn never returned to them.

"Alright, then." said Klyn "But I get first dibs on anything I find useful on this ship when we come back."

'Absorbed parts of our life?' Lyla repeated in shock. It sounded horrible. Better than dying, maybe, but not much more. She had to ask Tera exactly what had happened when she touched Iponta, but maybe not while the Gutretee were around. They rarely seemed to get any time to just sit and talk.

'Well, I hoped you locked up the Gold before we left. I'd hate to get back and find it the local Jawas had got it up on blocks.'

She waved to Yustavan as the old shaman seemed ready to leave. She wasn't exactly eager to go by "wave". 'Hold on, we need to search the ship a bit. Back in a tick.' she said, then hurried back into the Wanderer.

The twi'lek made a swift room-by-room search of the ship, finishing up what she'd begun before the Gutretee arrived. She wanted to confirm how many people and droids had been on board, species if not human, and how many died. She also kept an eye out for any nice loot.


OOC: Searching the Wanderer: Perception 24
19:49, Today: Lyla Rahn rolled 24 using 1d20+7. perception.
* Looking out for traps
* Tracking: Is that possible? Maybe no footprints, but blood, hair, number of lived in quarters, signs of people in the bathroom, amount of food in the kitchen. That's to work out how many people, how many droids, their species, their injuries, the haste they left in.
* Looking for gear, credits, and other loot. Any electrobinoculars or scouting/survival gear left behind?

Going back inside the Wanderer Lyla saw the bridge and the body of the pilot just as Klyn had left it. Many of the ship’s instruments were shattered and scorched. Next to the Bridge was the Captain’s Quarters and Pilot’s quarters. The captain had better quarters than rest of the crew. The captain’s quarters had a desk and a private bathroom. The pilot’s cabin had a footlocker with the tag ‘Bektate, pilot’. The other quarters contained more spare uniforms and boots. The name tags were Talke, Lerenga and Higgs. It was clear that the ship was designed to hold a crew of six and that all the quarters had been recently lived in.

In the Engine room the entire chamber was scorched and part of the hyperdrive engine was a mass of metal fused together. The body of the ship’s engineer was laid on the deck. The corpse was badly burned. The engineer’s ID card has been partially melted but the name could still be read as Esteren Higgs. After her searching Lyla gathered up a heap of bits and pieces that she deemed valuable and still operational, two FastFlesh MedPacs, three Proximity Flares, a Vacuum Mask and Propulsion Pack.

When Tera asked Yustavan for crystals the shaman nodded his head and resting his hand against the crystal cliffs he began to merge with the crystals. His body disappears into the crystalline cliff face. The shaman moved through the walls as a shadow in the rocks. When he re-emerged from the crystal canyon he walked toward Tera and offered her two crystals. An Ankarres Sapphire and nugget of Kathracite.

Tera made the appropriate gesture to express her extreme gratitude for the gift that the shaman had given to her. Tera was surprised that these crystals were given to her, but very thankful for the generosity of their host. "I believe we are ready to leave, if you can take us to the starport."

Almost running from room to room and deck to deck, Lyla snatched up all she could find that was of any use or value. The ISC crew had been very thorough in denying their possessions to the Rebels, and had left very little behind. She could admire their quick thinking. In the end, she scrounged a few medpacs, flares, and other gear, in addition to the spare boots and holovids and player looted from the one called Meahonon.

She stuffed it all in a sack for later examination, then made her way out to catch up with the others. 'I'm ready.' she announced.

The Gutretees are ready and lined up. They face down the canyon. Once everyone had joined them the shaman gestured then walked to stand behind them all. As the shaman chanted the crystals beneath then began to tremble then rose up quickly, lifting everyone high into the air. The ground had turned into a series of sparkling crystal waves, rolling down the length of the canyon. Yustavan continued to chant as Gutretee rode the wave.

OOC Everyone make an Acrobatics check.

Klyn was captivated by the strange ritual of the crystal people.
The sudden rumble and the shaking of the ground nearly took him by surprise, but years of working inside a flying ship - most often a desperately fleeing one - had greatly improved his sense of equilibrium. This prevented him from a shameful fall.

21:08, Today: Klyn Cors rolled 21 using 1d20+3. acrobatics.

"Are you quite done... hrmmm.... looting?", asked Oglo of Klyn and Lyla.  "So little time... hrmmm... we have now.  Now ride... waves we must."

Oglo didn't trust the alien transport at all.  Too much about this planet was too alien to him.  Oglo wanted to compare the native people to his own, but the more he learned about them, the more they were opposite.  Even the way they viewed their environment was opposite to his.  No Ithorian would dare compare the tree tops of his planet to an "ocean" to be ridden on.  Attempting such a thing would be considered sacrilege!

Today: Oglo Obwatt rolled 17 using 1d20+1. Acrobatic

As the crystals rose up into the air, Oglo kept his footing solid.  He had wide-toed feet so he kept pretty stable despite his otherwise perfectly ordinary coordination.  Riding on a flat crystal that floated over another surface did remind Oglo of an activity he once learned to do when he was a child visiting the beach.  It was a beach in the loosest sense of the word.  It was not on the coast of an ocean, but rather a large fresh-water lake.  But it was sandy and the wind was strong enough across the large surface of the lake to generate waves a few feet high.  They were large enough waves to surf on.  The activity felt to Oglo all together alien.  It was strange though the lengths people would go to break the monotony of life.  Oglo mostly used the time in the water to learn how to swim.  That felt a bit more natural than riding on the foam board crafted by Humans.

It was funny how this crystal planet brought out memories from Oglo's life that he had thought were long-since forgotten.  It was one of the few memories he had of him spending time with his father that were happy.  Life was normally hard work toiling in the soil.  It is all he thought he remembered of his father.  Two of his mouths broke out into smiles as he remembered that there was more to life than growing plants and serving the Rebellion.
This message was last edited by the player at 03:45, Thu 20 Feb 2014.

'Yep, all done!' Lyla returned, missing any criticism Oglo might have. She'd been a survivor for far too long, and done far too much to survive, to be ashamed about where she got her stuff from.

Lyla tried to ready and brace herself, but had little idea what was going to happen, and was too fascinated by what the Gutretee were doing. Suddenly the crystal thrust its way up beneath her, and even the graceful twi'lek lost her footing. 'Woah!'


OOC: Ech, Acrobatics 8.
09:04, Today: Lyla Rahn rolled 8 using 1d20+4. acrobatics

Knowing what to expect, Tera appears to be graceful as the rumbles arrive and take the group towards the starport. She seems surprised that Lyla seemed to lose her footing "Are you ok?"



21:22, Today: Tera Inkari rolled 23 using 1d20+3. Acrobatics.

Rynn was listening to the chanting, getting drawn into when the ground began to move, it took him off guard and he fought to keep his footing.

10:19, Today: Rynn Culmar rolled 15 using 1d20+2. Acrobatics.

As the wave surged on down the canyon they all travelled. The movement shook Lyla and T3-M8. Throwing the Twi’lek onto her bottom, Lyla finished the ride sitting down. The droid also lost its balance fell onto his back. Some of the Gutretees looked around to see what had happened but laughed good-naturedly at the sight. Everyone else managed to keep their footing and ride the crystal wave and remain standing when it comes to a stop.

OOC Continued in The Chase.