•Mr. Skee taps the Untouchables for an assignment.
•The trail for Wertsnik leads to the Galactic History Museum.
•Lyta saves the life of a ruthless crime boss.
At the same time, back on the Raraza, Catchy receives an incoming transmission from Mr. Skee and patches it through to Kazbich. Mr. Skee remembers the legal help he provided to the Untouchables on Myzil V, and thinks it's time to call in a favor: The Ryn crime lord Gaph has been waging a bloody campaign through the Coruscant underworld, deep in the bowels of Republic City itself, yet the Jedi have been powerless to do anything to stop him. Mr. Skee wants to know how Gaph is able to pull this off time and time again.
While Ras goes to the Jedi Temple in search of a Jedi Master who can help her, the rest of the party goes into the lower levels in search of information about Gaph. Crask is unwilling to make the drive, so he sends a Bothan driver instead, who drops them off but is not willing to wait around for them. Upon landing, the party is accosted by beggars. A Twi'lek claims to be a Mandalorian Wars hero and tries to shake down Kazbich for money; Kazbich refuses, but when the Twi'lek says he just wants some booze, Kazbich offers up his hip flask. This gets all the beggars coming, since hey, someone's actually listening to their panhandling. Lyta and Oro take the initiative to lead all the homeless to the clinic of their Toydarian doctor friend, Bumo. At Bumo's clinic, Lyta learns that Gaph's men have been stealing lots of medical supplies, creating a crippling shortage in the lower levels; the Republic police don't act on it, since most of them don't really care what goes on in the dangerous lower levels. Bumo does provide, however, a comm number for an associate he knows who is trying to track down the missing supplies himself. At the same time, Kazbich fends off a Talz death stick dealer.
Kazbich makes a call to Bumo's contact, who turns out to be a Zabrak doctor named Bekk Stath. The party meets up with him at a bar in the lower levels, and Stath says he's been tracking where Gaph has been stashing the supplies he's been stealing. He leads them to an abandoned turbolift tube, where they climb down 12 stories (which is physically exhausting) to Gaph's warehouse, in a dark, abandoned level. The warehouse is full of medical supplies, and a single Twi'lek is organizing the loader droids to lift supplies out of a speeder truck while security droids stand watch. Kazbich tries to bluff the Twi'lek by saying he works for Gaph, but the Twi'lek sees right through it and tries to stab him. A brief fight ensues, with Stath (an accomplished martial artist) charging into melee and Gobmush smashing droids willy-nilly. After a brief fight, the Twi'lek surrenders and says he can tell them where Gaph is; he also says Gaph is stealing medical supplies because he's got some illness he can't shake. The party ties him up and decides not to kill him anyway.
The next day at the Jedi Temple, after finishing building her lightfoil, Ras meets up with Master Gonar Vos, who uses his Force powers to locate Wertsnik — meeting a Yarkora at the Galactic History Museum, near an exhibit about the founding of Coruscant. The party goes to the museum, but Wertsnik's already gone. Ras convinces the security team to allow them access to the security camera footage, and after a long search, they find footage of Wertsnik meeting with a Yarkora in a rancorskin jacket, but there's no audio. After bringing the footage to the Jedi Temple, Asa Ulara reads their lips and says they're meeting a third party the next day at the Royal Icqui Aquaria.
The party then decides to check out Gaph — the Twi'lek leads the way deep into the catacombs beneath the city to an abandoned factory, where well-armed Ryn stand guard outside. The party convinces the guards that they're doctors sent to help cure Gaph. The Ryn lead them inside the factory, which has been turned into a Ryn enclave. Gaph is staying in the control room — he's the leader of the colony, a tall, imposing figure who hides behind a heavy cloak. Lyta convinces him to let her try to treat him, but Gaph warns that if she can't help him, neither she nor her companions will leave the enclave alive.
In a private room, Gaph shows Lyta the cause of his condition — he found a spinal implant years ago which grants him nondetection from Jedi. (Ras confirms this when she can't get a firm sense of him through the Force.) He says that he stole it off a corpse at the wreckage of the Draay Estate after the terrorist attack there five years ago. Lyta's diagnosis is that his body is rejecting the implant and the implant itself is causing necrosis of nearby tissue, literally poisoning him to death. She says he'll need regular blood transfusions just to stay alive; there's no cure for him other than removing the implant, which he's not willing to do. Lyta is briefly tempted to kill the brutal crime lord now, but decides in favor of her hippocratic oath and does him no harm. Satisfied with the diagnosis and her makeshift treatment, Gaph lets them go, but warns them to never return on pain of death. Kazbich contacts Mr. Skee, who is satisfied with the information but says their debt is not settled yet. Ras is noticeably uncomfortable with letting go a crime lord in possession of what appears to be a Sith artifact.
1 comment:
Small nit to pick -
Lyta was never tempted to let the crime boss die - Lyta's player, Jim, was tempted. Tempted, that is, as in other players trying to tempt him into killing the crime boss.
Just to be clear - Lyta never intended to assassinate the man, nor did Lyta's player.
To borrow from the vernacular, it's not how I roll.
Post a Comment