Session XXXIV: Toxic Relationships

 Howdy partners. So we're back and well, this last session, while lots of fun, had all of the things that frustrate a GM. We had a lot of ground to cover and I was hoping to get through the rest of the Tatooine Manhunt module. Soan Voan's player has to leave the group, so this was to be her sendoff, with a satisfying conclusion where she gets her revenge on Jodo Kast. Additionally, Lo'Sar Tan has it in for Jodo, so something big and important would have happened for him as well.

Well, Lo'Sar Tan's player was a no show because of a flat tire, so I NPC'd him, thinking that the most important aspect that I had planned would be workable in a later session, except for killing Jodo Kast, which would fall to Soan rather than being a rivalry between them for who could chop him to bits first.

Add to this that several players were late, and we ended up starting an hour and a half later than I had hoped. And then the party started split (because some who were not in the last session were still on the Silverlight) and they bungled uniting right away, and once they were united, they split again.. TWO MORE TIMES...and.. well we got to the section I had planned to be 30 minutes in... but it was four hours in by then.

Sigh... so  let's just get started with the opening crawl.

Opening Crawl:

Session 34: Toxic Relationships

Soan Voan grabbed the familiar-looking dart out of her neck and looked at it in horror as she collapsed to the ground.

Though she and her friends had survived an ambush at the Mos Eisley cantina set up by her former lover and loan shark Jodo Kast, he had fired the fatal shot and jetpacked away.

The commotion had ended, the band had started playing upbeat and cheery music again, and the last thing Soan saw before she lost consciousness was Hal Brunchkiller standing over her, trying to get hi-fives from the rest of his team after his epic lightsaber throw, oblivious to her fatal condition...

I kept telling the AI to make the dart smaller. It had trouble understanding, so... you get the idea. And yes, she's so good at spatial awareness that she managed to collapse on a pile of pillows.

So inside the cantina they all scrambled around trying to figure out who should be the one to apply a medpac to Soan. 

(Note: Whenever someone is hurt, they all sit around and deliberate on who has the highest first aid rating. They still have not designated a healer. Meanwhile the Jedi has learned to heal folks by touching them ... but the elder droid always chimes in that he has a few dice in first aid.)

Anyway eventually someone performed a first aid roll and determined she was beyond their abilities. She'd been poisoned, and had roughly 11 minutes to live.

Lo'Sar Tan (as an NPC) recognized that the dart was one of his, and he said he would be able to whip up an antidote if he had the right ingredients.

Those included:

1. 50 mL High-concentration alcohol

2. Dantooinian lime zest

3. Naboonian lake weed 

4. Alderaanian insta-yeast

5. A fresh mynock liver

The guys in the cantina started asking around in the kitchen if they had these things, determining that the only one they had was the high concentration alcohol.

Lo'Sar Tan said he had items 2, 3 and 4 in the kitchen on the Silverlight, but getting there would take 6 minutes if they ran. So if they were to run there, get the three ingredients and run back, they'd arrive one minute after Soan's death.

(Note: This is when the first of many deliberations took place as they discussed how to solve this puzzle. Turk's player kept saying that he was already on the Silverlight, and it took them a while but they realized they could call him on the comlink and ask him to get all the ingredients and hop on over to the cantina ASAP.)

So they called him up saying what they needed. Turk went to the kitchen and did a search and found items 2, 3 and 4. Maki (her player was joining us this week) overheard the commotion and sprung into action... alarmed that her friend was in danger.

They were about to run over to the cantina when Lo'Sar Tan reminded them that the mynock liver had to be fresh.

Turk: Well where are we going to get a mynock?

(Note: As GM, I asked everyone if they remembered anyone talking about mynocks over the past few sessions.  They did not. When this happens, I ask people to roll knowledge and if they are successful I feed them information that they should have remembered. Lotto, the customs officer was complaining about ships coming in with mynocks attached. It's a minor detail from three  sessions ago, so it's fine. Nevermind that I have to know the intricate details of not just the plot points of the overall story, I also have to keep track of everyone's characters and give them satisfying arcs as well, meaning I have to know intricate details for each character and keep track of everything. Well, that's kind of why I write this blog, and we've been operating based on what is written in this blog even though it might differ from what happened in game every now and then.)

Turk suddenly remembered that Lotto had complained about mynocks when they arrived. He went outside and struck up a conversation with him.

Lotto: Heyyy, if it isn't Mister BEEEG DEEEAL! What can I do for you?

Turk: Hi.. I was wondering if you had any mynocks.

Lotto: Mynocks? Why would you want one? Filthy parasites. They suck power out of sheeps eh?

Turk: They suck power out of what?

Maki kicked Turk in the leg, right about where D'Wook always kicks him.

Lotto: Eh, your pet... a feisty one eh?

Turk: Yeah so I need a living mynock... um... for research.

Lotto scratched his head.

Lotto: Well, if you go to the docking bay across the way, a sheep just landed there. That means the staffers will be vaporizing all the mynocks they find attached to the hull.

Turk: Okay thanks. 

Turk and Maki ran over to the docking bay across the way, um.. number 93. As they entered they saw lots of customs staff talking to the crew of a large freighter. A human dock worker was using what looked like a power washer, only it was shooting plasma, since water would be too expensive on Tatooine. Once the plasma hit a mynock it would fall limp and fall off the hull.

They ran over there.

Space bats.

Turk started arguing with the dock worker, saying he wanted to try his power washer out. The dock worker refused, saying he needed to be licensed and insured. So Turk decided he would pull out his amazing rifle, put it on stun, and shoot one himself. The dockworker took that as a threatening action and immediately ran for the main office, where he turned on an alarm.

Turk shot a mynock, stunning it. He picked it up and prepared to leave, when Mos Eisley militia soldiers showed up putting him under arrest. Turk dropped everything in his hands. They mobbed him and cuffed him. One of the soldiers took posession of his awesome weapon. In all the confusion Maki took hold of all the ingredients and the mynock and dipped out of there.

She ran outside, looked at a map, but struggled to read, but recognized a symbol for food and drink, assuming correctly that this was the cantina. She ran on over there with two minutes remaining before Soan would meet her end.

Lo'Sar Tan got to work immediately. He expertly cut the mynock in the correct location, pulled out the still beating liver ...

Golden Wheels' player: Wait it's the liver not the heart. Why is it beating?

GM: Alien physiology.

So as I was saying... Lo'Sar Tan stuck the still beating liver into a blender, mixing the other ingredients in precise amounts. He blended for roughly 45 seconds, pouring the concoction into a shot glass. He ordered Hal Brunchkiller to pour the glass down Soan's throat and make her swallow.

(Note: Lo'Sar Tan has a cooking skill of like 8D or something. He's amazing. It kind of sad that he wasn't there.)

Hal Brunchkiller dashed over to Soan but tripped over one of the dead bounty hunters, managing to shove the whole shotglass into Soan's mouth and not spill a drop. (Note: Hal's player rolled a one on his wild die but still rolled high enough to succeed at running over there and placing the drink in her mouth quickly).

So is this podracing?

The shot glass was jammed into her throat and he desperately was trying to pull it out with his fingers. This is when Soan awoke... she breathed in.. or at least she tried to anyway. The shot glass was blocking her windpipe.

She kicked Hal off of her and gave him the finger... she was about to pass out from lack of oxygen so she gave Hal the finger.

Somehow her shirt changed colors.

So then Golden Wheels came along and extracted the shot glass.

(Note: That's all for now. More happened during the session, but I will add it later. I thought I'd just put up this first part for now since I had some good pics.)