Waylon steps forward and says,"Mighty Hutt, I am sorry to hear that Raden has found such disfavor with you. That is truly disappointing as I thought that he understood your needs and would be a great intermediary for our future business dealings."
"Yeah, he's important. And savvy with an eye for talent. He brought us to you, right?"
The Hutt laughs at Rufus' attempt at speech making. The Hutt babbles in Hutt to his droid
The mighty Draga states that Raden has failed him once too many times and the penalty is death for all who fail the Hutt
Dreams steps forward slightly.
Mighty Draga, if they fail you and you have them executed, then how can they learn from their mistakes so they do not fail you again?
Punish him if you must, but give him the chance to learn from his mistake so he can serve you better.
He then steps back to see what else happens.
"Look at it this way: if he keeps failing, it puts him in even more debt to you! He'll owe his life to you and he'll never be free! You can't buy loyalty like that!"
Ardan mutters something to himself about that kind of indebtedness just being another motivation to off the person to whom you're indebted, but he mostly keeps that to himself.
"Surely there is no questioning the great wisdom of Darga. A pity that this sad one has no alternative value... either for amusement, or as bait. After all, a successful Hutt has many enemies and many jealous onlookers. One who has no further use to the organization can always serve as a means to draw out those who don't know any better when they try to strike against the cartel," he says a bit languidly. "It's a strategy that my own family used back on Onderon. If an agent proved inept, simply cut them loose and then see what kind of fish came to nibble at the hook."
The Hutt seems to listen and then speaks to his protocol droid who translates
The Supreme Darga the Hutt sees you point. However, Raden Woten must still be punished in a manner that teaches him and others of Darga's vassals the price of failure. The punishment must be commiserate with his failure and can include death. Perhaps one of your group can inflict the punishment?
Softly and in the group, dreams comments.
If we need someone to administer a punishment, I will be willing to. But I will not take a life or limb unless in a fight.
Sebbik watches the scene play out. He wonders if the Hutt is up to something here, but remains quiet and watchful as Dreamchaser speaks up.
"I'm prepared to offer a stern talking-to and judgmental stares," Rufus offers.
Not really trusting of the Hutt, Kol glanced about looking for threats and exit routes... Just in case.
The Hutt speaks to his droid again, anger in his voice. The Supreme Darga is not happy with any of your responses.
Ardan says, "There's... hmm. An old tradition that my family sometimes uses, called la greisa. Here's how it works."
The noble paces back and forth as he gestures with his hands to punctuate his speech.
"The goal of la greisa is to humiliate the target. The target is stripped down to their undergarments, then has a clapboard placed over them with some kind of insulting phrase written on it, like 'Kill all the Rodians' or 'Ask me how much I love having sex with your mother.' The clapboard's attached to a belt that has an incendiary device in the buckle, so if it's removed, it explodes. They also have a hat that includes a video transmitter, so we get to watch what happens."
"You tape the target's mouth shut, put a knife in their hand, and then shove them out of a speeder in a bad part of town about half a klom from the spaceport. The target's goal is to reach the spaceport and escape by stealing a ship. Of course they have no money, no clothes, they're carrying a knife and wearing a clapboard with a humiliating and incendiary message on it... most folks who go through this wind up making enemies of a local swoop gang in a hurry."
"Now we did have a case where one fellow tried to turn himself into the local policing authorities. I guess he thought that if he could explain it all, they'd come and arrest us and let him go. Too bad for him that the incendiary in the belt also has a remote detonator."
"Of course, if someone does manage to escape in a ship—and it did happen once, a woman managed to steal a snub fighter and get away from Onderon—all debts are cleared. They're free to go without further malice, so long as they never return. Maybe someone would want to get revenge after going through all of that, but y'know, most folks figure out that after going through la greisa, it's best just to start over somewhere else far, far away. Not that there are many survivors."
\
Sebbik's eyes harden, but he says nothing and makes no offer. The duros has no intention of harming someone who has done nothing against him personally.
Waylon looks at Ardan as he tells his story and then steps in to say, "We have only the greatest respect for the wisdom of the Mighty Hutt. We just wish to have a smooth and lucrative contract and thought that this man might be an excellent steward for your incoming wealth Mighty Darga so that you might concern yourselves with higher matters. We, of course, meant no disrespect in questioning the grand decisions that you make but hoped to only offer our desire to work with one that we knew to ensure that a smooth business transaction could be maintained."
Darga the Hutt begins to laugh, the infamous laugh of the Hutts. He turns to his majordomo, a Neimodian, and speaks in Huttese. The Neiomodian gives a look to a member of the court, who comes out, pulls a pistol, places it next to Radle Woton's temple and pulls the trigger!
Sebbik winces as Radle is summarily executed before their eyes. "So much for smooth." He mutters to Waylon as he keeps his hands away from his blasters. At least for the moment. Hopefully it won't come to an outbreak of violence, for they haven't yet learned anything about the Hutt's involvement with the Empire's plans.
Ardan's brow comes up slightly, but he still has a bored expression.
"I suppose some days you can't get rid of a bomb."
Waylon tries to remain passive and hope that the gun is not loaded as there are far too many in the court to oppose the Hutt currently.
The Hutt erupts in laughter as the corpse is removed.
Kol grabs his blaster at the execution, certain that things were about to hit the fan.
"So, that's a 'no' on the stern talking-to, I take it?"
Wincing at the summary execution, Dreams keeps his hands away from his blaster but near his blade.
Once nothing else happens, he relaxes slightly, but still keeps a wary eye out.
A few days later...
A delegation from the Iron Ring comes to Darga’s palace during the
heroes’ stay there, and the slavers are not happy. The delegation consists
of three tough-looking Humans, a Rodian with a large blaster rifle, a
black-furred Wookiee, and a scarred Zabrak leading two Twi’lek slaves by
their collars. They arrive seemingly unannounced, and as the audience
chamber falls silent, it becomes apparent that Darga is less than pleased
to see them. Taking up space in the middle of the chamber, the slavers
offer everyone in the room, including the Hutt, a hard glare. After Darga
spurts out a question in Huttese (, the
Zabrak steps forward and spits on the floor before speaking in heavily
accented Basic “The slaves you have been selling us are worthless, Darga! They have
been dying before we can even get them to market. They are used
up—second-rate! I want my credits back for the last four
shipments!”
Darga lets out a low, rumbling laugh that sounds sinister even for
the gluttonous Hutt. He rolls his eyes toward the heroes, utters a side
remark, which gets translated (“See what ungrateful business partners I have?” and then gives
the slavers an angry response, translated by his protocol droid. The crime
lord tells them that they have had the same business agreement for
years now and that he is not responsible if they don’t know how to take
care of their own product. He says that if they do not apologize and
leave, he will have no choice but to dispose of them.
Waylon watches the slavers carefully and tries to feel out what they hope to accomplish here.
Sebbik lets his hand ease toward the holster of his blaster pistol, readying himself to draw the weapon. Ostensibly to back up Darga's threat, but also itching to pull the trigger and blast these vile slavers to hell.
What do you do?
At this point, the slavers and the Hutt descend
into a seemingly fruitless argument about slaves and payment, with
neither side budging.
This is odd, my posts got mixed up in order??
Waylon looks to see if this might be a good time to leave the room and begin looking for the crystals they came here for.
Go ahead and give me a stealth check instead of a perception check.
Waylon tries to slip out of the room.
Dreams moves over towards Donnaven and subtley places himself partiallg between him and the slavers.
Waylon is able to sneak away, he thinks very sneakily.
Waylon begins looking for a place that looks like a lab or computer center.
(Tie goes to Sebbik, as he's got +7 vs +3?)
Sebbik takes note of Waylon moving away surreptitiously and, on pure instinct, follows suit. It seems to the duros that having anyone wandering around this place on their own could be bad news. And besides, he can move around unseen when needed...
Once he and the human are away from any obvious watchful eyes, he'll tap the Jedi on the shoulder to let him know he isn't alone.
= 26 total
Kol continued to slouch unobtrusively in the back, watching for a signal from the face men as to what to do.
The young man peeks his head around the cathars shoulder, whispering I wonder what is going to happen
Suddenly, the young jedi grasps his head and cries out in pain