"The plight of the Jawa's is a tragic one." Bastilla said as she sat across from you "My own journey brought me here as well, and even than the natives of this planet were quickly ignored or subjugated. Had the Republic or the Jedi not been fighting for our very existence, we could protected them better, and prevented millennia of injustice. Now though, it seems even if The First Order were removed, it would be difficult to wash away the views people have of them."

The ancient Jedi looked down for a moment, and than up "Forgive me, young one. You asked for help, not a history lesson. It is difficult for me not to look at the galaxy as it is and wonder how it has seemed to failed so many times, what small things I might have contributed to this, or what I might have been able to do differently to remedy the problem. You are correct to be cautious. The problems coursing through Tattooine are numerous, and they are ancient. They cannot be solved through an afternoon, and they cannot be solved solely through force. The Jawa are on a dangerous path that can quickly escalate to a war that they would certainly lose. The First Order, as anything that has been tainted by the teachings of the Sith, do not believe in the concept of proportional response."

"Like the dwarf star, Wix is unaware of the effect he has on those around him. There is a great pull towards him, even though he lacks confidence in himself. He is caring, brave, and inquisitive, talents we would have greatly sought and valued as a potential Jedi. That he has been able to teach himself knowledge of The Force is both encouraging and fearful, for all of his promise, he is also impulsive and very emotional. Keep him close. He listens to you, sees a kinship in you that he doesn't seem to find anywhere else, even in other Jawa. Be the voice of wisdom, so that he may not stray to the Dark Side, and you will both blossom from your partnership."

"Remember your mission." Bastilla warned "You are trying to save the lives of your friends, and prevent further calamity. Nothing more, and nothing less. A final warning. I sense that there is something in the shadows here. I feel that the Jawas are being influenced by an unseen hand. Attacking others like this is not their way."

Koi listened closely, frowning when Bastilla mentioned her own personal history. The history, she sensed, was important. Sometime history was merely a story of a long time ago in a galaxy far away.  But ancient trails and old spoor sometimes held a quiet, helpful wisdom.  A cache of seeds, or even an abandoned shelter.

But the self-remonstrating bothered her.  It reminded he a little of her father, who was always shadowed by his inability to do more to protect his Wookie colleagues and the plants of distant planets -- which were often destroyed by the First Order's greed. In the state of spiritual balance necessary to use the Force, it is a little easier to see the quiet potential of Koi's spirit. The respite and protection of the branches-yet-to-grow. The refreshment of the fruit and flowers she might someday grow. "M'am, I am grateful you are here now.  I reckon that tragic old man is too.  The evil of others cannot be undone by a single hand, no matter how skilled. That you tried to hold it back is all anyone or this Force could ask. Perhaps you are so great a Jedi that you can see every out come, and my words our foolish.  But if you were my sister I would tell you we can. We can only put our shoulder into the push, and hope it is enough. And you did."

She pauses and refocuses to the problem at hand,"If there is so much ancient conflict in this city, are there secret ways through the city that we might use to sneak into the First Order jail and back out again? I recall that old cities are often built on top of each other, like a river-weasel might build a nest on the previous years. I would much rather use stealth and cunning -- and spare my friends and Wix so much trouble."


Koi adds thoughtfully, "I had thought it might have been Wix that blew up the generator in the market place. In a fit of mischief. Or the anger of Mr. Maul. Is there another? It certainly egged the First order to more paranoia and violence."

OOC: Plant metaphors just seem to fit Koi. :) Minor edit for grammar as my proof reading is 100x better after I post.
This message was last edited by the player at 16:40, Sun 25 Oct 2020.

"You have friends and resources in the present that can answer that question better than I." Bastilla responded. "Where a road does not already exist, one must often build one."

"You show your wisdom in assessing your small friend. I am certain Wix is responsible. He has been content to be a disruptive nuisance to the First Order. What he and his friends are plotting is something different. This is a hostile act, and one has to wonder what droids they think would be able to fight against trained soldiers, and how they would have gotten their hands on them."

"I wish that I could be of more help, but take heart knowing that I am with you, and that I applaud your commitment to the nonviolent means."

"I appreciate you being here." Koi admits with a strained smile, "this..it's a lot of responsibility that I only recently learned that I had. I'm glad I have you and Wix as friends."

She waits until the Spirit fades away before she goes to find Wix.  It only seems polite by her archaic fringe rules of politeness.  "Hey Wix, I talked to my spirit friend -- the one who helped with the angry spirit." She hesitates to break the bad news."She thinks it's a bad idea to attack the First Order directly. She thinks the First Order will use it as an excuse retaliate harshly against your friends, or any Jawa they can find. I think I agree with her that this not a good risk.

If we can, I think we should sneak my friends out. Then I think we should go to the New Republic for help. I can help translate for you so that we can make an alliance. Then when we stand against the First Order, we will have more people, ships, and resource to help prevent a harsh retaliation."

Koi pauses, "She mentioned that this planet and city are much older than most people think. That there have been many cities and wars here - a long time ago.  Are there any tunnels or places under the First Order bases we could use to sneak into and out of their base or their prison?  I think knowledge and cleverness are going to be our best weapons for now."

Wix clapped his hands excitedly "Dig! Make Droid Dig! Diggy Diggy Hole! Smart Jedi! We go meet friends, before trouble." Pointing down the ramp of the ship

Koi felt relief like a cool breeze that Wix wasn't disappointed by the change in plans. And then, as usual, she felt confusion. "Sounds like a good plan. So, you want to take the speeder out, get some droids, bring them back, and dig from the hanger into the jail? And then sneak out through the tunnel?"

Koi didn't usually consider herself slow in the brain meats, but she was starting to wish Wix could draw her a picture or something..

Koi could be forgiven for feeling dizzy around Wix. The Jawa was impetuous to a fault, seemingly acting on the first thought that entered its mind.

"Ohhhh! Good Idea! Wix planned on digging from Sandcrawler. Further away, harder to detect. Still trouble of getting friends back to ship."

Wix looked around for a moment as it thought "Have to change whirry whirry droid into diggy diggy droid. Big droid, hard to sneak in."

"Alright," Koi agreed. "I'll bring some tools, and we'll go out on the speeder to see if we can change up these droids for digging. Maybe we can put them in a hauler with some umm..broken used parts to hide them and sneak them into your shop, but let's go see how big they are and figure out how many we'll need to dig."

Koi hesitates for a moment, "Wix?  My spirit friend warned me about something else.  She said that someone or something was trying to push your people to fight too soon. Will you help me look out for that kind of thing?  I am worried that there is another bad spirit like Mr. Maul out there. I'm not as good at..sensing things..as you are -- will you let me know if you feel something rotten trying to sneak in?"

Wix was silent as he looked out into the distance for a moment. "Wix may know." He replied "Not Sith. Not Jedi. Trader. Big words. Big smile. Sold us whirry whirry droid, really cheap."

He starts to head down the ramp again, heading for the speeder "Take droids apart, bring to city. Make changes, put together. Diggy diggy hole."

"Hmm.." Koi comments opaquely, the look on her face suggesting that she doesn't like this fellow.  She gathers the tools she thinks they might need for this plan -- both the tools and Wix are carefully packed on to the speeder.

"Alright, tap my left side if we need to go left, right side if need to go right -- shout if we need to stop."  She turns around and smiles, "and hold on tight if we need to go faster."

OOC: To the ship! :D

Thankfully this departure did not involve another chase from First Order soldiers, or a confrontation with the Tuskans.

The Dune Sea was immense and barren, which ironically made finding the Sandcrawler relatively easy; it was the only thing out there that moved. The hulking brutes of a land carrier did not stop quickly, but after a loop around it, the mobile Jawa home did come to a halt. The entrance hatch lowered slowly with a lot of clattering and an unhealthy noises; these machines were old, and while Jawas were ingenious at keeping things going, most were not proper and true "mechanics", certainly not to keep something like this running as well as it should.

Wix hopped off in a hurry, and as he did there was a sea of high pitched cheering. It was difficult to ascertain exactly what they were talking about, given the speed and number of voices. It started to sound like an argument sharply, and the change in body language started to match.

A slightly taller Jawa steps away and begins to speak to you

"You! Ruin Plans! Jawa fight back! Now you take droid, take Wix, take friends. You no give to Jawa! No deal! You want help, you give help! Or we fight First Order, with or without Jedi."

Koi regarded the tall Jawa calmly, thinking: this would be a lot easier if I understood their language better.  But she tries not to let her uncertainty come through her words, "You're right. I don't think you should fight. I think you should fight and *win*.  And winning means more than fighting once with a few robots. I want to free my friends so they can take me and Wix to the Alliance.  Wix is clever and can convince the Alliance to come and help you fight.

If you fight today, you'll only fight with a few people. Sure I'll help -- but many will die. And you do not have enough to fight for more than a day or two. You do not have enough to defeat them all. And after the fight, the First Order will kill many of you. Even those that do not fight will be killed. With the help of the Alliance -- you will have more help. And more importantly the First Order will not be able to retaliate afterwards and hurt the innocent among you."

She adds, "I am true friend to Wix and his friends. I want success not for a day, but a hundred seasons. I am sorry it will take longer, but to act now is to drive a vehicle half built and with a half-filled power cell. It does not go far enough and leaves you in a bad place."

21:56, Today: Midichlorians rolled 18 on Behalf of Koi Sundar using 1d20+1 ((17)).

The tall, angry Jawa stared with his blank luminous eyes for a moment before turning back to the huddle. More angry conversations were had, with several heads moving between you and Wix.

"Fine!" The angry one protested, his hands up "We Help Wix! We Help You! We Help Friends! But you help us! Wix in debt to clan. Come back, pay debts, or shame forever!"

Wix's headed sunk a little, fearing what may happen if he's never able to fulfill the nebulous end of his bargain.

"Now! Inside!" The tall one called as he went into the Sandcrawler with the rest following behind. As you followed the trail, Wix lingered behind a little until he was alongside you.

The inside of these giant tanks was a maze. It would be amazing for any of them to be able to say definitively what they had and where they got it. This was a droid's horror show and an obsessive compulsives worst nightmare, but among the clutter there were a few standouts.

In the corner, you were able to immediately peace together that it was the droid Wix was talking about, even though he hadn't described it by name.

"The Whirry Whirry Droid", an updated and modern model of the Droideka from the Clone Wars.

https://i.pinimg.com/564x/c0/6...cb99a61479d856ce.jpg" data-lightbox="images-msg-91">https://i.pinimg.com/564x/c0/6...cb99a61479d856ce.jpg" alt=''>
This message was last edited by the GM at 03:11, Sat 07 Nov 2020.

Koi gave a long exhale of relief as the Angry Jawa was convinced by her surprisingly  eloquent words. She ducks her head to follow him through the narrow, precarious corridor.  She tries to will some reassurance to Wix; she doesn't understand Jawa debt, but Koi is sure that their plan is the better one.

And yet, as she squeeze past the indifferently lit, stacks of scavenged tools she supresses a shudder at the broken droids. Especially since some models probably are (or were) sentient. The thought: I'm going to have nightmares about this later.. skitters across her mind.

But the 'whirry whirry droid' brings her up short. She can almost hear the distant screams of Jawa from a hopefully averted future. Releasing a war-droid on the paranoid outpost of the First Order would be an mitigated disaster. "Holy Lover of Thorns.." she whispers in horror. Were they just going to turn it on and let it loose?

"How..It's just this one?" She asks quietly. Praying that they don't have more of these terrible war machines.

Wix nodded quietly.

"Just one. Help from offworlder. Someone in Republic. Said would bring more help. Or try to."

Wix moves close up to it "Good order. Not used. Needs power. Take apart, bring to city. Change whirry-whirry to diggy-diggy."

He motioned to follow along for the miscellaneous piles of droid parts. "Swap parts, need find parts."

The rest of the Jawas seemed to be in this act as well, scurrying through their unorganized collection.

Make a perception check, but feel free to communicate any dialogue.

Taking 10 is an option here. You can also take 20, but this means the act will take 20 times as long, lengthening the time your friends are imprisoned and who know what may be happening.

OOC: Let's take ten.  I think a botch here would end this storyline really quick :D.  Can Wix, the Spirit, or the other Jawa assist?

Perception: 16 using 1d20+6 ((10)).


"That's fine..but let's disarm this fellow before we get any further. And maybe find a manual. Koi murmured, trying to organize how she was going to do this.  It was a huge undertaking. "Did he have a name? Or is there a picture?  I'm not sure he was telling the truth about who he was -- the Spirit didn't like him."

She takes a deep breath to calm herself, and thinks as clearly as she can to the Spirit: Can you help? I've never worked on a military droid before..

OOC: Your results are sufficient, especially with the Jawas helping. They'll also be doing most of the work, so no Mechanics check for you. Your main task will be getting the deconstructed portions into the city and actually getting your friends free.

Wix shrugged at the question "Wix no there. No know name."

Soon, there was a varied pile of replacement parts suitable for the task. The droideka would still move by rotation and have it's shield, but its weapons systems would be swapped for a variety of appendages: drills, shovels, and claws. The Jawas not involved in finding the parts were busy taking the droid apart. Although the work was diligent, they made no attempt to have the parts sorted or organized.

Make a straight intelligence check for ensuring everything is getting on board your speeder, and a wisdom check for the best way to pack them.

Koi twitched with the urge to organize the parts herself, but before she indulged her inner Captain Control she tried to think about why the Jawa 'disorganized' things as they did.  It would be difficult for an outsider to figure out what was going on and take something they needed.  Perhaps this would be a better way of doing things..assuming it would still fit on the speeder. 

As the heap of parts grew, Koi ran her hand through her hair and started sorting the pieces. There were just too many to shove in her speeder's storage compartments. Small or delicate components were wrapped and organized in bags or her under-the-seat case.  Long things were wrapped with cord and a tarp put over anything that might be damaged by sand.  Really, it wasn't that different that packing branch samples for her dad..except there were so many of them.

Eventually there was a hump on the back of her speeder like a bubble turtle shell, complete with a handle for Wix.

OOC: Survival (wis) = 18 using 1d20+6 ((12)).

Wix quietly climbed onto the top, grabbing the handle with one hand and holding a pistol of some sort with the other. He seemed to linger his tiny glowing eyes on the other Jawas he was leaving, though neither he nor they were waving or extending farewells.

Koi pauses before she starts the speeder. "Are you okay, Wix?"  She asks softly.  "If you want to say goodbye, I can wait a few minutes."

Once Wix says his goodbyes..or not. Koi drives her speeder more cautiously back towards the city. I'm going to need a good story if I'm stopped. There is no way I'm outrunning anyone with this big guy strapped to my speeder.

With all of the activity in the day, the guards were put on higher alert, and did stop you at the gate.

"That's quite the load you got there" One said through his helmet "Care to account for all this, and your friend?" he pointed towards Wix, who was still having a tight grip on his weapon, especially as the other  soldier approached him.

Koi shrugs with the sullen disinterest of someone not getting paid enough to care. "He hired me to haul this junk to his shop. Apparently some idiot crashed in the desert recently and he was eager to get his hands on the scraps before the competition did. Looks like crap to me, but I get paid either way."

Midichlorians, on behalf of Koi Sundar, rolled 13 using 1d20+1.  Persuasion.

"Hey, I've seen this one before" The second soldier says "This little womp rat runs a shop near the hangar, sells droid parts and a lot of other scrap. Never could figure out how he got his hands on his better finds..."

The soldier tries to pull the various flaps and folds to get a peak inside, but Wix makes a quick push with his weapon to back off. The soldier grabs for his sidearm but is motioned to stand down

"Take your word on it," Said the first to the second "Never could tell one of them apart from the other. If that's the case than you're clear to go through. Just mind your friend, Jawas will take anything that isn't nailed to the ground."

The guard motions you through, allowing you to head straight to the Gammorean Rose.

Koi waits to turn a couple corners before she shivers apprehensively, "That was a close one, Wix.  I'm not so good at coming up with sweet-talking words. That's more Mel's territory."

She is eager for the relative privacy of the hanger. It's not until the hanger door is clangs shut that she can feel the muscles in her back start to relax.  Hopefully they'll be safe here for a little while -- at least until they can get their mission underway.  "Alright, let's put this fellow back together.."

17:06, Today: Midichlorians, on behalf of Wix, rolled 12 using 1d20+10.  Mechanics.
17:05, Today: Midichlorians, on behalf of Koi Sundar, rolled 9 using 1d20+7.  Mechanics.
Not super great for either of you, but working together is reducing the total time to complete this.

The going in the seclusion of the ship was slow. The twin suns of Tattooine were finally beginning to set before all the parts were taken out and laid out an cogent manner. On one hand, it was your unfamiliarity with specific mechanisms of this droid. On the other hand, it was Wix's erratic behavior and inability to stay focused on a single task. Frequently, he would go between removing and sorting parts to trying to fit parts together that he believed fit together. Than, on the third hand, was the fact that you were trying to fit components to this droid that it wasn't meant to have.