Diplomatic Entanglements 6 - Rooftop Rumble

*The team proves that while they may be excellent at theft, combat, fraud, impersonation, and a litany of other improper actions, they aren’t quite that good at negotiations.*

## **Previously**

*After wiping the floor with some poor, disgruntled thugs in a Coruscant bar, our heroes walked from the thoroughly devalued bar currently known as the People’s Republic while voicing hopes of purchasing the location and renaming it What Bota Woulda Wanna. An agreement was made with the spooked Ameral Breed to search for traces of several individuals, most notably Bota Zi, and the esteemed Cal Omas reached the group with an update from the New Republic on their own work in finding and saving their friend.*

## **Recap**

### **Yet Another Conversation**

Walking nonchalantly through the Coruscant evening, Blaine notices that the surrounding area is much calmer than when the group initially arrived a short time before. With limited traffic crossing the area, he readily takes notice of a small group of droids and humans assembled on a nearby rooftop. Peering over, Blaine spots a human figure motioning for the team to make their way across the nearby overpass. Unable to ascertain the identity of anyone in the group, Blaine quietly tells the team what he is seeing. They make their way over warily, spreading out and watching for any potential ambush.

Climbing the final ladder rung ahead of the group, Katira moves ahead of the group quickly, now recognizing the man that beckoned the team as Lannik Rakto. As the rest of the team makes their way to the rooftop Rakto greets the heroes with a somewhat mocking tone, recalling their last run in on the planet and the groups lapse in judgement as they released him while failing to keep tabs on him. An agitated Katira expresses her own regrets over having kept him alive before introducing the rest of the group.

Getting to the point, Rakto divulges that the people he is currently working for have been keeping fairly comprehensive notes on the team’s activities. Hardly surprised that Ameral Breed agreed to work with the team, Rakto states that he was called in for one simple reason: to tell the group that enough is enough and they need to stop now.

> "*We let you go free last time. That’s how nice we are.*"
> ― Blaine
>
>

> "*Why do you guys think I didn’t snipe you from across the roof here?*"
> ― Lannik Rakto
>
>

> "*It’s because you’re a bad shot.*"
> ― Tek
>
>

Rakto continues his pitch, offering credits or goods in exchange for the group dropping the matter but nobody seems to think that the deal will be made, particularly since Bota Zi will not be released. Noting that Rakto appears far too composed for such a tense negotiation that is obviously doomed to fail, Blaine takes a moment to survey the area and discovers several assassin droids lying in wait while Lannik himself appears unarmed.

Suspecting that Lannik has some ulterior motive, either of his own or of Admiral Daala, Blaine makes his own pitch to recruit the man. Though Blaine’s persuasive argument fails, Rakto comments that he’s not here for the money and implies that he may not be here willingly at all.

### **Rooftop Rumble**

As the negotiations come to a close, Blaine leans into the suspicion that Lannik is here against his will and hints that the mercenary should duck.

As he does, from behind Blaine Jowkazza rushes in and takes the assassin droid behind Rakto in both arms. Before the droid can make a move, Jowkazza tears a leg from the droid and flings is across the roof and into a nearby piece of machinery. Katira runs at the prostrate droid, draws a knife, and severs the droid’s cabling at the arm joints before moving to cover nearby. With the rest of the group moves past Rakto, a stoic Tek walks directly to the man and draws his blaster. Placing it on stun, he fires right at Rakto and knocks him unconscious.

The surrounding assassin droids begin moving toward the team and opening fire, with one blaster bolt striking Jowkazza for little effect. As the rooftop begins to sin into pandemonium, the figure of Blaine Hansom takes to the air to add to the chaos, his expert shooting to stun a droid contrasting with his haphazard flight as he comes crashing to the ground next to Katira.

> "*This was not set for stun. This was set for love.*"
> ― Blaine
>
>

> "*With Love from Cloud City.*"
> ― Luke
>
>

> "*That’s the movie I’m making about myself.*"
> ― Blaine
>
>

> "*So self absorbed.*"
> ― Luke
>
>

From the back of the roof, Jawa Jimmy and Rusty jump out from being an atmosphere control unit. Jimmy expertly fires his ion cannon to stun an approaching droid (then ducks back behind cover), and Rusty moves in low before launching into an uppercut to what would be an inner thigh, knocking the droid to the floor.

After the first few seconds, the battle is decided. Though more droids appear on the rooftop, they are made short work of by a combination of explosive bullets, brutal thigh punches, expert pistol marksmanship, Tek attacking defenseless opponents, and finally by the unhinged violent tendencies of Sparky. When the group takes a minute to catch their breath they see a pair of droids standing guard at the far end of the roof, defending what looks to be a Clawdite in a complex suit and another freakish shape shifter.

> "*Tek… Tek… That thing over there… in the white… I’ve seen it before. In my nightmares! Now is the time where you should shoot it, or stab it with your green glow sword, or whatever it is you do now!*"
> ― Katira
>
>

> "*I want… to put in a knowledge cartridge first.*"
> ― Tek
>
>

> "*and then let me concentrate.*"
> ― Blaine
>
>

### **Non-Negotiables**

As the group looks on, the disturbing character adjacent to the Clawdite begins to change shape. Its grotesque features begin to distort and push outward, growing with new limbs beginning to protrude as it takes an aggressive stance. The nearby droids are motioned forward to take position in front of the pair, and another droid moves from the shadows to block the line of sight from Blaine, Tek, and Katira before lowering their weapons at another signal.

> "*Alright guys, they’re showing weakness. They want to make a run for it, let’s kill ‘em.*"
> ― Blaine
>
>

> "*Let’s kill the only solid lead to Bota we’ve found.*"
> ― Tek
>
>

As the group moves forward cautiously, the Clawdite speaks and tells the group that it’s time to bring an end to this. They tell the group to drop their weapons and come with them if they want to see Bota, an offer that the group roundly rejects under suspicion that it will not follow well for them.

> "*He just silently looks at you. Not moving, not answering you. He’s just waiting for you to make a move.*"
> ― Luke
>
>

> "*Alright. So if you agree that you’re surrendering, don’t say anything… Alright boys, let’s take ‘em in.*"
> ― Blaine
>
>

Dissatisfied with the group’s response, the Clawdite states that if they ever want to see Bota again, they have to be brought in. From behind the Clawdite, an airspeeder pulls in and stands by as a final offer is presented. Standing next to him, his apparent body guard continues to grow, soon becoming twice the size of Jowkazza.

Still the heroes refuses to place themselves in an undesirable situation. Blaine comments on the fact that they have already destroyed the vast majority of the Clawdite’s droids, and have no need to surrender when they can shoot themselves out of the scenario. Katira pretends to pick through the wreckage of the droids laying on the floor, talking as she does so and attempting to send a message to Cal Omas requesting support.

> "*You think you’ve sized up the situation perfectly. We’ve planned for all this. You think that we haven’t been watching you and planning to meet you at this point? This location, this roof. You think this is all random? We put this all in place for ourselves.*"
> ― Clawdite
>
>

> "*I mean, I think it’s fairly random. Could you tell me one thing: does Kenneth work for you?*"
> ― Katira
>
>

> "*Who’s Kenneth?*"
> ― Clawdite
>
>

> "*Thank goodness! I was worried about him. He’s an impressionable young man, you know?*"
> ― Katira
>
>

With no answer coming from Cal, the team tries to make a play for more time, but the Clawdite and its bodyguard become impatient. Stating that they will set a meeting in the future for a time when the group is ready to be serious in their efforts to rescue Bota, they board their speeder. On the surrounding rooftop the droids begin to explode as an apparent self destruct command is issued.

As the party members that were left near the droids hit the deck, and those at the far side of the roof run forward, Katira fires at the speeder, causing no damage and managing only to elicit a smoke grenade thrown in response. With their adversaries escaping, the frustrated figure of Blaine Hansom suddenly rockets to the air after them.

The airspeeder rocks in the air as Blaine slams into it with his magnetic boots, and as the group looks on the speeder begins to depart, a single assassin droid flying next to it with blaster at the ready. The overachieving figure of Sparky jogs across the rooftop, and with a leap fires off his grappling hook but misses, managing to grab the building behind him to catch himself and look up in time to see the remains of yet another assassin droid thrown at the speeder by Jowkazza.

## **Featured Characters**

### **Our Heroes**

* Blaine Hansom
* Jawa Jimmy
	+ Sparky
* Jowkazza
* Katira Eve
* Roostan Steele
* Tek Krodak

### **NPCs**

* Lannik Rakto
* Mysterious Clawdite
* Shi’ido bodyguard

### **Mentioned**

* Cal Omas
* Ameral Breed
* Admiral Daala

## **Inventory**

* -2cp to *persuade* Lannik Rakto (Blaine)

## **Notes**

* Lannik Rakto commented that the capture and imprisonment of Bota seemed to be intentionally temporary in nature, with part of the goal being to keep the team on Coruscant and not investigating elsewhere.
* High roll of the night: 22 on 2D6 by Jowkazza
* If you listen back to the mission: At 2:27:24 you will hear the soothing sounds of deep, rhythmic breathing as our resident recorder finally gets all tuckered out and nods off, and at 2:34:37 he begins to snore in peaceful slumber.

## **Quotations**

> "*Money is not the problem here. I don’t even care about your business dealings outside this interaction… the rest of your posse I’m not familiar with, but I’m guessing they’re not in it just to be chasing Bota around.*"
> ― Lannik Rakto
>
>

> "*At this point, that’s exactly what we’re doing.*"
> ― Katira
>
>

> "*Once this battle is over we can steal all the AC units on the roof and go into the air conditioning business.*"
> ― Tek
>
>

> "*All the droid’s are similar, except this one looks like it has a jetpack.*"
> ― Luke
>
>

> "*Alright guys, let’s steal that one’s jetpack and give it to Bota.*"
> ― Blaine
>
>

> "*I spent a long time painting that new jetpack I bought for Bota!*"
> ― Katira
>
>

> "*Alright, well in that case the jetpack group is open to everyone.*"
> ― Blaine
>
>

> "*Sweet, I never get to use this thing!*"
> ― Jowkazza drawing his bowcaster
>
>

> "*Your bowcaster skill is only 4D?!*"
> ― Luke
>
>

> "*His dad was never around as a kid, so he never learned how to use it.*"
> ― Blaine
>
>

> "*In classic Jedi style, Tek only fires at those things that can’t defend themselves.*"
> ― Katira
>
>

> "*I’m helping you out, Katira.*"
> ― Tek
>
>

> "*That droid is **literally** unconscious on the ground! There’s a fully operational one **right** there!*"
> ― Katira
>
>

> "*He was laying there in a very menacing posture!*"
> ― Tek
>
>

> "*Right, I ran toward this one because I was so scared of him.*"
> ― Katira
>
>

> "*You destroy the servos and mechanical parts inside of it, and it fires off a shot… it singes the wall as it goes right past Katira.*"
> ― Luke
>
>

> "*Are you sure it went past her?*"
> ― Tek
>
>

> "*Oh, my hero! You almost got me shot by the unconscious droid that was perfectly safe before.*"
> ― Katira
>
>

> "*Then I have failed my mission, madame.*"
> ― Tek
>
>

> "*This relationship has never changed, and it’s great that you guys have kept up the comradery through this.*"
> ― Luke
>
>

> "*You hit him three times in the legs and take him completely out of commission.*"
> ― Luke
>
>

> "*Looks like he doesn’t have a leg to stand on anymore.*"
> ― Blaine
>
>

> "*How can we kill these guys as fast as possible?*"
> ― Rusty
>
>

> "*Katira! Katira, do your magic!*"
> ― Blaine
>
>

> "*These guys are as confident as me. I hate it.*"
> ― Blaine
>
>

> "*You miss.*"
> ― Luke
>
>

> "*So somewhere now, there’s a stray bullet flying through the streets of Coruscant, and it will explode when it hits something.*"
> ― Katira
>
>

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