Call of the Deadly Nightshade 2 - Dark Passage

*Accepting a a mysterious invite from Nightshade, the group races to Port Corusca but, as usual, gets caught up in situations created by their own hubris.*

*Mission? What mission? With NPCs galore to interact with, our heroes strike out into the Coruscant night. Mortally wounded Gungans are left to be found by police as Skids McDougal is given a criminal record, Blaine continues on his quest to invite anyone and everyone that crosses his path without pissing him off to Cloud City while leaving the rest pissing their pants, Rusty’s past comes calling, and a pair of squatters part ways as our heroes make their way to a meeting with the mysterious Nightshade.*

## **Previously**

As the official Life Day celebration for galactic delegates wound down, the team was given a mysterious invitation by an organization referring to themself as Nightshade. Proceeding to the renovated Bar at Meteorite Towers, the team argued with a bartender before eventually being offered tailored rewards and invite to a full briefing elsewhere. The catch? They would need to evade bounty hunters to get to the meet. Jumping down trash chutes and out windows, and leaving a distraught Uggnaught unconscious and wet, the group managed to escape the bar but will they reach the next step in their potential rendezvous?

## **Recap**

### **Dirty Deeds, Done Dirt Cheap**

Darkness surrounds Rusty as the entry to the garbage chute closes behind him in a rush. After a moment of discomfort, he is able to maneuver his body and free himself to slide down into the darkness, sliding and turning along the grime coated ductwork, occasionally having more garbage converge into his own path as other chutes connect to the main and enlarge.

Finally, wreaking of a mixture of waste from anywhere and everywhere in the massive building, Rusty sees a light ahead and falls with a thud atop the Gungan that he sent ahead of himself. Looking about, a maze of conveyors and machinery operates the waste recycling plant somewhere in the belly of the structure. Rusty pushes himself off the Gungan, commenting that the being should be grateful that Rusty saved his life as various probe droids buzz about. The pair begins to argue, the Gungan commenting on how he won’t be getting paid now *and* has to deal with a broken leg after Rusty fell on it, when a probe droid hovers to their location and begins to flash a red light.

Soon the facility supervisor, an insectoid reminiscent of a Geonosian, is flying over and shouting at the pair while they continue to blame each other for their current predicament. Showing a badge and identifying himself as Mrrklipp Frennk, he comments that the pair needs to provide their identification and pay a fine for violating building code.

Rusty identifies himself as Skids McDougal as the conveyor system moves the pair along, eventually deciding to jump to the ground from the machinery. As the Gungan is unable to extricate himself from the conveyor, Rusty tosses him down first before jumping off himself. In the process he mortally wounds the poor operative, then deciding to carry him out the door indicated by Mrrklipp with him.

### **Quick Exit**

Safely behind a locked door in the Bar at Meteorite Towers, Blaine, Droo, Jawa Jimmy, and Jowkazza shuttle themselves down using the service turbolift in pairs as pounding and frustration are heard on the other side of the door. Arriving in a small lobby, a building employee calling herself Zala looks at the growing group in obvious confusion before eventually asking what they are doing in the employee entrance. Her confusion peaks when Blaine identifies himself as an undercover officer, and despite her better judgement she tones down her protesting at the situation and points out the nearest exits.

Just as the group is preparing to exit a whiff of rotting produce mixed with rusting metal announces Rusty and his Gungan buddy’s arrival from the far end. The group pauses to chat for a moment, but is politely asked to do so outside as Zala tries to keep her dinner down.

Stepping into the cool evening air, a pair of hotrod speeders, a taxi, a police speeder, and a utility van look to be the first options for a quick departure as the team takes a look around. The few persons milling about the area give a wide berth as they encounter the smell coming from Rusty and the Gungan, and Blaine opts for chatting up a nearby technician just getting out of the nearby van. Offering 10,000cr to “borrow” the vehicle, the shy Nautolan readily accepts the offer from officer Hansom and only asks that he ditch the vehicle somewhere safe and easy to discover when it is later reported as stolen. Taken by the polite readiness to accept the offer, Blaine decides to let the Nautolan keep the credits he originally intended to have Jimmy steal back, and the team piles into what is essentially a company van with the Gungan laid out on some tools in the back with Droo mending their wounds through the force.

### **Lulu and Eriadu**

As the rest of the group manages their own affairs elsewhere, Bota comes down with a hard landing on a platform extending out from the building well above everyone else, trying to save every last charge in his jetpack in his descent. The cacophonous landing on the metal surface startles two well dressed men standing nearby, and the pair each take off running in opposite directions.

Bota slows one of the departing men down, but is soon interrupted by a mysterious Sakiyan called Lulu holding the second man at blaster point. Initially planning to stop the woman, Bota takes an aggressive stance toward the two men when he recognizes their names as being somehow connected to the planet Eriadu, and a tense standoff begins. As the man identified as Ando Snopps triggers a silent alert in his vehicle, the grievances aired by Lulu indicate to Bota that the men are likely closely tied to the Eriadu Authority, and he soon finds himself firing his blaster off in an intimidation tactic to see what he can learn and calling the rest of the group to his location.

Down below, Jimmy jumps behind the controls of the group’s expensive ride and begins to head toward Bota. Narrowly avoiding a speeder that flies through a red light as Jowkazza informs him that it looks like a police speeder is heading in their direction. In the intersection, a collision occurs, freezing all traffic and buying the team time to retrieve Bota before law enforcement arrives. Blaine catches sight of Bota’s blaster fire and the team pulls up to the platform to find Bota with Ando Snopps and Jarus Omanda, Lulu having fled at the sight of flashing police lights in the distance.

With time running out, Bota orders the pair to turn report to Blaine’s leased building nearby and then turn themselves in to Cal Omas. Both Bota and Blaine notice a look of recognition upon the address being mentioned, but are left with no option but to leave the men there. As the team loads up into the maintenance vehicle, Jowkazza finishes up applying first aid to the Gungan, stabilizing the poor guy and opting to leave him on the platform unconscious to be found by the police in the hope that he will be taken to a nearby medical center.

### **Rusty's Romantic Past**

Departing the capitol district, the group makes their way to the entry for Port of Corusca Bay 7 in haste. They arrive there with no sign of pursuit from any hunters, placing their speeder down just outside the port walls and beginning to look about for a means of entry. The wall surrounding the port appears to extend vertically some 10 meters, completely enclosing the space with entry points spaced throughout. Each access point is currently sealed, with a security barrier actively repelling any repulsorlift vessel from entry.

With one exception, the surrounding buildings come well short of cresting the wall, each looking to have been constructed fairly recently. The lone exception is a 3 story structure reminiscent of an old condominium, obviously neglected in recent years and labeled in several places for eviction and demolition. The closest buildings all appear to be government utility facilities, one for power generation and the other maintenance, with a substation sending power to the area located in an inside corner of the port itself.

Bota takes the lead, shooting into the air and commenting (again) about how glad he is to have his new jetpack before landing atop the two story building nearby. Through the transparisteel roof he can see that the building appears to house mercantile items being stored for transport from the port, with two persons still inside late into the shift working. As he looks over the rest of the area he spots an Aqualish keeping a lookout from around a nearby corner. The man glances around the corner, and upon seeing the rest of the group he steps out into the open and begins to shout… at Rusty.

> "*Roostan… it’s like looking in a mirror. A dirty, funhouse mirror… why do you smell so awful?*"
> ― Theodore “Thrusty” Steele
>
>

The rest of the group looks on as Rusty’s brother, Thrusty, launches into a tirade about how the current situation with Lulu is all his fault, mentioning that the entire reason that he was waiting in the area was in hopes of catching up to the Sakiyan before she got herself into more trouble. A confused Rusty responds and the pair are soon arguing loudly in the alleyway nearby, prompting the resident of the dilapidated house to shout out for them to shut up so that she can get some rest. Eventually Thrusty gets tired of arguing with his brother and heads out into the night in search of Lulu, and the scene fades to black and white as Rusty gives a bit of a backstory on his time as a bouncer for the bar that Lulu used to dance at. Reminiscing for some time, the team remembers that they arrived here for a reason and decides they should get serious about the matter before it's too late.

After looking around a bit more, Bota comments that it looks like the group will be able to make their way into the port by jumping over the wall if they can make their way to the roof of the residential unit. Making their way over, Droo is suddenly startled by a comlink she didn't know she had beeping in her pocket. She pulls the item out and receives a message that there is a shipping container in the Southwest corner of the port that the team needs to make their way into if they want to get off the planet unseen, and relays the message to the team.

### **Squatter's Rights Don’t Make Squatters Right**

Inside, the building is not in much better condition than it appeared from the streets. Bottles and trash litter the floor, and the dim glow of a holo screen can be seen from the far side of the room, with a small lamp giving barely enough illumination to make out the various pieces of furniture and litter strewn haphazardly about. With Blaine on point, the group discovers that the building houses the old woman that shouted at Rusty a few minutes earlier as well as her partner, an elderly gentleman barely taking his focus from the holo as the heroes enter.

Unable (or unwilling) to pass up the chance to learn who this mystery couple are, Blaine introduces himself as a Coruscant police officer on an undercover assignment in the area while the lady, calling herself Midge, says that she and her husband Wills haven’t done anything wrong and reaches a hand toward Jowkazza, asking if she can feel his fur only to be dissuaded by a non too welcoming growl.

Wills complains about the repeated disruptions that the police have been making on the property, claiming that it is their property and as a veteran of the Republic and then Imperial military he finds the treatment disrespectful. Blaine is able to see right through the lie, guessing that the man never served in the military at all, but doesn’t seem to care. Instead of pressing for information, he offers to give lodging and work to the pair, even going so far as to offer the credits needed to make their way to Cloud City if they want a better life. While Midge seems overjoyed at the prospect - and at the fact that Jowkazza let her pet his “oh so soft” fur - Wills seems less than enthusiastic about the prospect of living in the Outer Rim with “all those others”.

Though Blaine doesn’t mind that Wills doesn’t want to live on Cloud City, the old man gets under the Baron Administrator’s skin with the derogatory comments. When Midge mentions that she knows a way into the port, Blaine stays behind as the elderly woman leads the way and leaves Wills in Blaine’s signature pose: stunned unconscious with his hands down his pants.

## **Featured Characters**

### **Our Heroes**

* Blaine Hansom
* Bota Zi
* Jawa Jimmy
	+ Sparky
* Jowkazza
* Roostan Steele

### **NPCs**

* Mrrklipp Frennk - recycling facility foreman
* "Larry Gungo" - crippled Gungan
* Zala Rimarch - tower employee concierge
* Dua Niov - recycling facility maintenance technician/van driving lottery winner
* Jarus Omanda - Eriadu Authoritarian
* Ando Snopps - Eriadu Authoritarian
* Lulu - Rusty’s vengeful lost love
* Theodore "Thrusty" Steele
* Midge Davick - Coruscanti squatter
* Wills Davick - speciesist Coruscanti squatter

### **Mentioned**

* Skids McDougal
* Droo Vos
* Cal Omas
* Dormushibolei Varrnassus III
* Tarrm

## **Inventory**

* -64cr to pay fine (Rusty)
* -10,000cr to use utility speeder (Blaine)
* -1,000cr to pay Midge’s way to Cloud City (Blaine)

## **Notes**

* Bota expended 2 jetpack charges on his landing and another 2 to scout out Port Corusca
* The Gungan commented that he was simply hired as a lookout by “that Alsache lady”
* Skids McDougal will have the building code infraction placed on his official criminal record as a minor infraction as Mrrklipp never managed to get a chain code from Rusty and had to go off the identity given
* Bota ordered both Jarus Omanda and Ando Snopps to report their incident to Blaine’s office complex, the location eliciting a response from both, but the pair has no intention of complying with the order
* Midge accepted Blaine’s 1,000cr and an offer to come to Cloud City for a new life, but it is uncertain whether she will use the credits for that purpose or not

## **Quotations**

> "*Oof, this is getting too much for me.*"
> ― Bota
>
>

> "*I'm just a humble jetpack ambassador*"
> ― Jordan
>
>

> "*Oh no, the garbage has gone to my heart*"
> ― Rusty
>
>

> "*You know what they say: 'Big hooves, big heart.'"*"
> ― Rusty
>
>

> "*Hey, Thrusty, ya big loser! I lost brother! real brothers! You know, the ones that fought on the field against the Empire. Before you blow one of your tusks off, you haven't seen what I've seen. Go back to the people that love you. Now tell me, is Lulu seeing anyone?*"
> ― Rusty
>
>

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