OOC: Well look at that, Britton gets to go first anyway.

Frustrated at his miss Britton threw a swift second punch.

OOC 19+4=23 4+3=7 damage (Mighty Swing)

The hit caught the biker right in the jaw, nearly breaking it.

Kelko came over as well, taking a swing at the other young biker, but his first punch missed as well.

The two young bikers responded in kind, slugging back at Britton and Kelko.  Britton was barely able to dodge his opponent's blow, and Kelko got grazed on the cheek by his assailant.

Then something happened that neither Britton nor Kelko had had to deal with during any of their encounters on Kothlis: the extreme heat from the twin suns of Tatooine.  Even Kelko with his all-temperature cloak was affected.  The only good news was that it also affected the two swoop bikers, with the biker facing off against Britton nearly fainting.

OOC: It's Britton's turn.

OOC What would be required to shove someone?

OOC: I would just use an unarmed attack; it's purposefully non-specific, meaning you could be kicking, kneeing, punching, headbutting, pushing/shoving.

Britton shoved the biker then stepped back.

"Don't ever talk about my friend that way again!" Indicating in his tone that he was finished with the fight, and the punches were a warning.

OOC 18+4=12 3 damage.

The shove caused the biker to fall, and he hit his head on the chair on which he had been sitting, knocking him unconscious.  The other young one seemed to get the point as well, moving over to his fallen comrade and loading him over his own swoop.  He then got on his own swoop and put his friend's swoop in tow and then headed off.

The veteran biker, having watched the whole incident with disdain, finally stood.  "I apologize.  The younger generation seem intent on picking fights for no reason.  Hopefully you've taught them a lesson in humility."  And with that, he mounted his own swoop and rode off.

Before Britton and Kelko could even catch their breath, Britton felt a tap on his shoulder.  "Excuse me," an older middle-aged man with a scruffy beard, scraggly hair, and rough clothing interrupted.  "My name is Freeg Kannan.  I saw how you boys handled yourselves just now, and I must say I'm impressed.  I own a moisture farm just outside of Mos Espa and I was wondering if I could hire you boys on to help protect it.  What do you say?"

"Well, technically we're just here looking for someone," Britton replied.  "Someone named Kenobi."

"Kenobi, huh?" the farmer repeated.  "I recognize that name, but I think you're going to have a tough time finding him.  The only ones that I know of who would know where he is are Jawas."

"Jawas?  What are those?" Kelko asked.

"Native traders," Freeg explained.  "But they live in enormous moving barges called sandcrawlers.  In order to get out where they stay you're going to need a landspeeder.  And if you want to communicate with them you're going to need some sort of translator droid.  No offense, but I doubt you could afford either one.  I am, however, willing to pay quite well for your help.  One thousand credits per day."  When Kelko's buggy eyes widened even more than they already were naturally and he looked to Britton, Freeg also added something to sweeten the deal.  "And I'll pay for you to be treated for heat exhaustion here at the local treatment center before we head back to my place."

"Deal," Britton said, eager to be out of the heat.

OOC You've not idea how hard it is to play in character when I know I should be doing more.  Like, ask how he got that much money as a farmer.

OOC: It's funny you should mention that.  When I first started I just found an interesting adventure hook in the RCR material that I wanted to use.  Much later on, I thought, "Wait a minute they need some money if they're going to get a speeder and a droid, which they're going to need."  And so from there I just calculated how much money I thought you'd need and worked it back from there.  However a few days ago as I was reviewing this in preparation for it coming up, I had the same thought you did: "How does this guy have 1000 credits/day/person to offer them?  That's an insane amount of money.  At that rate, they'd be making over 300,000 credits a year, who wouldn't take that job?"  So since then I've been formulating how to explain this, so if it's not in Britton's character to ask, that's fine (but feel free to have him ask if it's in his character to do so), but Freeg's going to explain at least some of it anyway.

Freeg shook Britton's and then Kelko's hands.  As he led them to the treatment center, he explained his situation a little more: "Now you don't need to worry about me holding you up from your search for Kenobi--I still do think you guys are looking for old Ben.  No, I just need your help long enough to find some permanent security hands for the farm.  Ha," he chuckled at himself, "I may have plenty of money, but not enough to pay 1000 credits per day for long.  Now I will need at least two days to find some more permanent workers, but feel free to stay on as long as you want--I'd rather have more time to look."

OOC: Does Britton have any questions/comments?

Britton rubbed his temples trying to make the headache he got from the heat go away.

"Yeah, sure, thanks."

Freeg dropped them off at the treatment center, saying, "I'll be right back.  I've got to go pick up my supplies and load them on my bantha."  It seemed like you had not rested long enough--though you were feeling much better --when Freeg showed back up with a large furry creature pulling a cart of supplies.

"Well, are you ready to go?" he asked gently patting the creature.

"Sure," Britton said, looking at Kelko to see if he was as well.

"Let's get going!" Kelko said with only somewhat false enthusiasm.

"All right, go ahead and climb into the cart and I'll have old Betsy haul us back to my place." Freeg said.

Kelko went ahead and hopped right in, and as Britton joined him, Freeg climbed right up onto the bantha.  Freeg gave a giddyap with the reins and the slow ride out of town began.  As you ambled towards the distant moisture farm Freeg rattled on about his life before coming to Tatooine.

OOC: If you want, I can give you his backstory, if Britton is paying attention, or we can move on.

Britton rubbed his temples as he continued to experience lingering effects of a headache.  He tried to pay attention to the man talking.

"I know," Freeg began, "You're wondering how an old moisture farmer like me can afford to pay you so much.  Well I wasn't always a moisture farmer you know.  I used to be a politician.  I was even a one-term senator--now granted it was for a backwater planet, but still.  I never did see eye to eye with Palpatine, and once I started being loud about it, suddenly it wasn't so great being my wife or my kid."  Freeg sighed, but more in relief than sadness.  "My wife left me and my kids disowned me.  But I'll get 'em back.  I'm putting all my money into this moisture farm, so that there will be no inheritance left for them when I finally kick the bucket.  What do you think about that, eh?"  Freeg turned his head around to see if either Britton or Kelko had anything to say.

"Huh, they disowned you for standing up for what you believe?" Britton asked.

"Not directly," Freeg answered.  "Though that's an interesting way of looking at it.  No, they were just scared of what would happen to them.  Doesn't make me any happier about it though."

"People should never abandon their family," Britton said, a touch of anger in his voice.

"Well, I'm not going to disagree with you on that one," Freeg said.  "But people also shouldn't be threatened with death just because of what one of their family members has said."  Freeg sighed, and Britton and Kelko could detect the slightest bit of sympathy for his family in that exhale.  "But that's the galaxy we live in, so I guess we just do the best we can."

As they started to crest another sand dune, Britton and Kelko started to make out tall, thin metal towers and then domed structures.  They could tell that all these man-made objects were supposed to be off-white in color, but the sand had blasted them so much that everything just looked tan.

"Welcome to my moisture farm," Freeg said, sweeping his free hand through the air to indicate the landscape around them.  "It's not much, but it's home now."

The bantha continued to plod on towards the domed structures, but just before reaching them, a frazzled man even older than Freeg and dressed in rough, tattered clothing ran up to them.  "How dare you!" he screamed at Freeg.  "How dare you use one of Tatooine's native creatures in such a lowly manner.  I tell you the banthas have finally tired of their servitude and are rising to destroy all sentient beings on this burning world."

Freeg slid down off his bantha and made a shooing motion at the man.  "Get out of here Neeruk, we'll not have any of your crazy talk today."

"I tell you it's true," Neeruk continued.  "They are already freeing themselves from the Sand People."

"Well good, maybe that will keep the Sand People busy enough to stay off my farm." Freeg replied.  "Now go on, get out of here."  Neeruk ended his tirade and beat a hesitant retreat off of the property.

"Sorry about that," Freeg apologized.  "Why don't you boys come in?  I'll feed you first, then we'll take a tour of the farm before you start your first night watch."

"Is he often like that?" Britton asked.

"Sadly yes." Freeg replied as he led his bantha to its stall.  "He's an old hermit who wanders the desert around here--not too unlike this Kenobi you're looking for.  I'm not even sure where he lives."  Freeg unhitched the cart and started unloading the supplies into a storage dome.  "Neeruk's always coming up with some conspiracy theory or other on how non-natives have doomed this planet; this is just his latest one.  And never mind that he's not native to Tatooine.  Ha!"  When Freeg finished unloading, he led them into the largest dome, and down a flight of stairs into the actual living area of the home.  "Go ahead and have a seat," he said indicating the dining table.  "I'm afraid I'm no gourmet, but womp rat stew will definitely fill you up," he said, eventually bringing in some bowls and then cups filled with a thick, blue liquid.  "Yeah, nothing Neeruk's said has ever come about, and I don't expect there's anything to this story of his either."

Britton was eager to eat so he dug right in.