What Lies Beneath 3 - Debits and Credits

The time has finally come to settle accounts with the creature known only as Balancesheet.

### Runtime

3:01:02

*Having discovered the source of the mysterious K2 Virus to have come from inside an Arquitens-class cruiser buried beneath the surface of Coruscant, our heroes prepare for a confrontation with the spider known only as Balancesheet that strikes such fear into the captive Emperor Evezan. While making preparations they come face to face with the mysterious General Ledger, who throws their understanding of the situation into disarray when he offers to help them reach the monster - his creator and partner - so that they can more easily strike him down.*

*Transports are discovered, and the team screams into the lair of Balancesheet, allowing him ample knowledge of their arrival to prepare himself. As Jimmy battles off more cyber-spiders, the invincible Bota Zi is brought back down to the ground (quite literally) and wounded early. Will this be the end, or will our heroes manage to overcome the odds yet again?*

## **Previously**

*With his cyborg bodyguards turned into spare parts, the group convinced the reticent “Emperor” Evezan to lead them to the source of the mysterious new disease recently emerging on Coruscant. They headed deeper into the sewers and emerged into an abandoned capitol class Imperial ship. As Droo startles Evezan with her mind reading, Katira steals the mans transponder to kick off a brawl. Fighting off cyborgs and several disturbing cybernetic spiders before finding room to regroup, the team now sits in a (mostly) empty hangar bay, preparing to make a move against the disturbingly well prepared trap that they seem to have walked into.*

## **Recap**

### **General Ledger**

Katira finishes off the final cyborg as Jowkazza unsuccessfully attempts to calm himself back down to help heal his friends. With Rusty still in obvious pain on the ground, Tek takes a moment to concentrate and accelerate his own recovery in the force, then turns to give the Aqualish a once over and apply a medpack.

Katira rummages through the scrap metal laying about, then turns to ask Evezan to explain what is really going on here. When the doctor tries again to buy his release in exchange for more information, a disinterested Katira passes the option off to the still enraged Jowkazza, who roundly rejects it.

> "*If I tell you… you’ll let me go, right?*"
> ― Evezan
>
>

> "*Look. You can take that up with that pissed off Wookiee over there.*"
> ― Katira
>
>

> "*Jowkazza hurls a spider-droid across the room*"
>
>
>

Before Evezan can continue skirting the issue, Katira turns to Bota and asks what the bounty on the would be Emperor currently stands at. Oddly, Bota states that while Evezan *should* be wanted, he seems to recall noticing that the bounty was closed out with Evezan being placed on Kessel. Questioning their prisoner, he skirts the issue yet again as he pleads for his release, and even an intimation that Evezan will be joining the bodies on the ground if he doesn’t comply yields nothing.

With his patience now wearing thin, Jowkazza abruptly shoves the doctor across the room, sending him sprawling across the floor, over Rusty, and into an empty container. As Tek helps Evezan to his feet, Rusty tries releases a small mouse droid to recon ahead but forgets that all droids were broken by the field surrounding the sewer settlement.

Getting to his feet, Rusty walks ahead to scout the area himself. He opens the nearest door, stumbling into a man dressed in the uniform of an Imperial officer.

> "*Ah, there you are!*"
> ― General Ledger
>
>

> "*That’s right, I’m uh… here reporting for duty.*"
> ― Rusty
>
>

Hoping to play it off as if he belonged in the ship, Rusty tries to con the Imperial but only manages to elicit a laugh as the man walks directly toward the team. As he crosses the threshold into the room, his head jerks in an unnatural manner to look directly at Rusty.

> "*I thought I was crazy, man. You alright?!*"
> ― Rusty
>
>

Catching sight of the officer, Bota states that the body shows an abnormal heat signature, but doesn’t add much more. As the man approaches the group, Katira steps out from cover to intercept him. She takes an educated guess that the man is the one known as General Ledger that Evezan had made mention of, but the knowledge only makes a small impact on the man.

> "*Doctor, why don’t you come out here and explain to the General why he’ll be coming with us back to the surface?*"
> ― Katira
>
>

> "*No, lassie… I’m too hurt from this Wookiee. General Ledger, they beat me! They hurt me! Have mercy on me, General.*"
> ― Evezan
>
>

Tek demands that Ledger tell the team where Balancesheet is, and the Imperial seems to smile at the request. He raises his hand, and stating that this may work out well he snaps his fingers. Suddenly the room is deathly silent as the white noise in the ship that the group had not noticed previously unexpectedly ceased. Unexpectedly, General Ledger offers to clear the route to Balancesheet for the group so that they can finish their mission.

> "*Did you create Balancesheet?*"
> ― Tek
>
>

> "*I would say that Balancesheet would be my father, but there can really be only one. It’s either me or him.*"
> ― General Ledger
>
>

> "*Highlander situation, I get it. So, what’s the bottom line, General Ledger?*"
> ― Tek
>
>

> "*Your overhead is **way** to high!*"
> ― Bota
>
>

A little confused, the group asks what exactly is going on and is given more information than they expected. General Ledger informs the team that he wants Balancesheet dead, but he is unable to perform the act himself. Whatever species Balancesheet is, he is able to create “nodes” that then act as his automatons. General Ledger is one of these nodes, one that managed to gain sentience. However, as a node Ledger cannot move into too close a proximity with Balancesheet without being reabsorbed. He is willing to clear the route to Balancesheet for the group in exchange for his own freedom, and the team can succeed in their mission to locate and eliminate the source of the virus.

The team contemplates the offer for a moment as Ledger looks on. Tek comments that they could take the Arquitens-class cruiser in exchange for the act, but Katira quickly points out that *if* they could manage to bring the scrap heap online they still would be lifting off from underneath a massive portion of Coruscant, killing thousands at a minimum. Exasperated with the situation that she finds herself in, Katira throws a knife into the nearby container. Missing Evezan’s head by centimeters, she demands some sort of actual answers.

> "*Are you going to tell us anything accurate, useful, or helpful? Or should I just finish you right now? Because I’m sick of this. There’s a virus, there’s no virus. They want us for a bounty, they don’t care about the bounty. They’re working together, they want to kill each other. Who let you be an emperor, and how have you not been murdered by at least a dozen New Republic bounty hunters already if you’re this stupid?*"
> ― Katira
>
>

> "*Woah, woah… that’s a fine pretty speech!*"
> ― Evezan
>
>

Finally realizing that talking is his best chance of surviving the ordeal, Evezan provides some background. He claims that the New Republic freed he and several others from Kessel and sent them to the then Imperial controlled Coruscant in hopes of destabilizing the planet for them. Once on the planet, Evezan and his partners discovered and saved the creature known as Balancesheet. In exchange for keeping Balancesheet and his former partners from prying New Republic eyes, Evezan was given his small sewer empire, which he ran for some time before the group arrived. As to his former partners, Evezan only knows that they are working with Balancesheet in some form.

Realizing that this may be their best path to mission success, the group agrees to kill Balancesheet, despite the fact that General Ledger may not be the most trustworthy individual to let live. Bota asks what the purpose of Balancesheet remaining in the ship serves, and Ledger simply makes note of the virus that he knows the team is in pursuit of, though there is a sense that the being has some ulterior motives associated with this location as well. Realizing that a fight is inevitable, Katira asks how to kill Balancesheet and is told that brute force will do the trick, but severing his connection to his nodes will expedite the process.

Jawa Jimmy asks if there is any cure to the virus, soliciting a freakish smile from General Ledger.

> "*I would say that I’m more the.. face of the operation.*"
> ― General Ledger
>
>

> "*You’ve been infecting people?*"
> ― Tek
>
>

> "*No. How would being the face of the operation mean being the person that infects people?! I’ve been interfacing with the people that provide the ingredients to the virus.*"
> ― General Ledger
>
>

Tek requests more information on the slicer that Evezan was working with, and General Ledger replies that “the Twi’lek” is working for Balancesheet against his will currently, and his fate means little to Ledger personally. Finally, Katira asks what the group will receive in return for killing Balancesheet, but is offered little aside from whatever speeders and materials the team can find onboard the ship.

### **Arriving in Style**

Jowkazza takes hold of Evezan and pushes him forward, indicating that he will be leading the way. Moving deeper into the ship, more of Balancesheet’s nodes are skittering about but pay little attention to the group. Evezan comments that General Ledger must be keeping them from attacking but they should still avoid harming the spiders.

A new set of doors opens, revealing a hangar bay holding three speeder bikes and an antiquated land speeder surrounded by more nodes. Walking in, they are startled by the eerie whistling of Sparky as he arrives from the sewers as Evezan states that Balancesheet is just inside the next room. Jimmy takes a moment to check the ships readings on the room, commenting that a large power draw is localized ahead, and multiple heat signatures show on scanners.

Taking a look around, Katira comments that the group may be able to use the speeders in this hangar bay to help in the fight. Agreeing, Jawa Jimmy manages to bring the land speeder online, limping and at a slight angle on one side. Rusty jumps into the passenger seat, and Bota jumps on the guns as Tek and Katira each mount a speeder bike behind. Bringing up the rear, Jowkazza continues to drag Evezan along as he shakes his head in disbelief at the audacity of the heroes.

The landspeeder crawls down the final passageway, scraping against the bulkheads and screaming out its approach as the rest of the team follows behind.

> "*I’ve held up my end of the bargain. He’s through the door. I, uh…*"
> ― Evezan
>
>

> "*You’re not in this bargain with, Evezan. You’re our prisoner. Ledger got us this far.*"
> ― Katira
>
>

With their prisoner groaning incessantly, Jowkazza walks him toward the final doorway then comes to a halt. Gesturing in a questioning manner, he has Evezan verify that Balancesheet is just through before removing the binders on his wrists. The disgraced emperor gives a look of hope and relief to the Wookiee, but just as he is about to thank Jowkazza for his freedom Tek reaches out with the force and pushes him straight into Balancesheet’s lair.

The sound of the now thoroughly humbled Evezan can hardly be heard as the group inches forward with the land speeder scraping along the starship bulkheads. Anxious for the upcoming fight, Rusty manages to flip on the radio of the speeder.

> "*You turn it on, and the first station that comes on is kind of a space polka channel. The second station is… kind of like square dancing music.*"
> ― Jordan
>
>

> "*This is getting worse, not better.*"
> ― Bota
>
>

> "*Rusty and Jawa Jimmy are fighting over the radio.*"
> ― Tek
>
>

> "*I imagine the group coming into this battle: this thing is scraping against the side, absolutely announcing your arrival, and you’re arguing over the radio station.*"
> ― Jordan
>
>

### **Why Did It Have to be Spiders?**

The landspeeder slowly makes its way into a room filled with the same small spider nodes that they fought earlier, all turning toward them in preparation to attack. Moving forward past the threshold, the majority of the room is dominated by the massive form of Balancesheet looking at the convoy as it screams its way in. Sensing that the group may need to hasten their way in before they are overcome, Tek tries to reach out with the force and push the speeder the rest of the way into the room for no effect

> "*Ugh… why did it have to be spiders?*"
> ― Bota
>
>

> "*Well, I think that walkers are your natural enemy, but spiders may come in second.*"
> ― Jordan
>
>

Bota launches into action. Knowing that they cannot simply stand by and wait for the speeder to be overwhelmed, he jetpacks across the room and fires shots at three of the nodes nearest the speeder, wiping them all out as he lands. He quickly communicates to Katira and Tek that there are at least 8 more of the creatures clinging to the ceiling in the room.

Before the sound of Bota’s blaster has faded, the cybernetic spiders suddenly rush into action all at once. Two of the creatures take hold of Evezan and begin dragging him, kicking and begging, toward the monstrous form of Balancesheet, and 4 more scamper onto the top of the speeder to attack Jawa Jimmy - finding himself defenseless with the sudden departure of Bota Zi.

> "*How did I end up in the front all alone?!*"
> ― Jawa Jimmy
>
>

> "*You were hiding behind Bota, but he flew away.*"
> ― Tek
>
>

> "*That’s probably the best image: Bota flies away gallantly and shoots all these things, and leaves you in the front where one of the spiders jumps right on you.*"
> ― Jordan
>
>

> "*Whoops, sorry guys!*"
> ― Bota
>
>

> "*What a jerk!*"
> ― Jawa Jimmy
>
>

Jimmy knocks aside the first spider, dodges a second, but is caught by the third and fourth. He manages to make out well, only being stunned as the whirlwind of activity dies down. Across the room, Bota doesn’t fare quite as well. Coming down alone on the other side of the room, he is swarmed by three spiders in range and knocked to the ground, wounded.

Jumping to Jimmy’s defense from the back of the land speeder, Rusty clambers atop the hood of the vehicle to launch an attack at three of the spiders.

> "*Should I get super greedy?*"
> ― Rusty
>
>

> "*You could get super hurt…*"
> ― Tek
>
>

Also emerging, the dominating form of Jowkazza leaps over the speeder and into Balancesheet’s lair between three spiders. His massive paws crumple two spiders immediately, then leave another twitching after being flung into the wall. Grabbing Evezan before more of the creatures can draw him to Balancesheet, he steps back and takes a defensive stance.

Atop the speeder, the harried Jawa Jimmy scrambles out from the cockpit as Rusty knocks the last functional one from his robes. He stumbles off the back of the vehicle, then turns to fire his ion cannon at the creatures, wounding one. Still inside, Sparky whistles a murderous tune as he makes his presence known by burning down two more spiders with his arc welder.

With Jawa Jimmy safely off the speeder, and no other pilot available, the scream of metal on metal comes to a halt. Noting that her speeder bike now serves absolutely no purpose, Katira leaps from the bike to the back of the speeder, then rushes to take a defensive stance in front of the group. She strikes down at the two spiders still alive in front of her, managing to stun one.

> "*Hello there.*"
> ― Katira getting a first look at Balancesheet
>
>

## **Featured Characters**

### **Our Heroes**

* Bota Zi
* Jawa Jimmy
	+ Sparky
* Jowkazza
* Katira Eve
* Roostan Steele
* Tek Krodak

### **NPCs**

* Cornelius Evezan
* General Ledger
* Balancesheet

### **Mentioned**

* Droo Vos
* Cal Omas

## **Notes**

* Katira turned her dissuasion field belt on at full 4D stun damage strength
* Jowkazza commented that his favorite artist is Shagniah Twain
* As the team completes their final preparations for the upcoming encounter, Jimmy slices into the ship’s computers to look for information. Though most of the data is corrupted, the Jawa is able to discover that this ship was built as part of Operation Lusankya and intended to rise through Coruscant’s buildings and devastate the planet when the New Republic arrived to take control
* -3cp for opening jetpack/salvo combination (Bota)
* -3cp to avoid death by cyborg spider (Jawa Jimmy)

## **Quotations**

> "*I guess if you had “Business: Bounty Hunting” it would make more sense. You shouldn’t have ignored all those Academy of Online Bounty Hunting degrees that you could earn at home.*"
> ― Jordan
>
>

> "*I’m just uh… looking for the facilities. I heard that… that you guys had a leak? I’m here to fix it.*"
> ― Rusty stumbling upon General Ledger
>
>

> "*What is your end game here? What do you have to gain by defeating General Ledger?*"
> ― Tek
>
>

> "*Well… I am General Ledger, so…*"
> ― General Ledger
>
>

> "*I’m more of a doctor who learned cybernetics. My friend is more of a slicer and cybernetics guy.*"
> ― Evezan
>
>

> "*I want to recruit your friend to join Slicers Synonymous.*"
> ― Tek
>
>

> "*The New Republic won’t give you their slicers, so you hire illegals and criminals?*"
> ― Katira
>
>

> "*He’s like anything: You shoot him enough, he’ll die. He does have an aversion to ion guns. Also… some of his arms are connected to certain components. If you rip those out he will have less control over his nodes.*"
> ― General Ledger
>
>

> "*I don’t know how to arm this thing. It would be dangerous for me to do that.*"
> ― Katira
>
>

> "*Neither do I, but that hasn’t stopped me.*"
> ― Rusty
>
>

> "*Look, Rusty, you did a good job with that generator. I mean, I watched you do it and… it wasn’t a fantastic explosion or anything.*"
> ― Katira
>
>

> "*I’ll just have to dock you some points.*"
> ― Jordan
>
>

> "*I mean, we both hoped for something better. Me for the fun of it, and you for your girlfriend, Ochelle over there…*"
> ― Katira
>
>

> "*Hey, ugly. What happens if I attack this… node?*"
> ― Katira
>
>

> "*Who you callin’ ugly?*"
> ― Tek
>
>

> "*I thought you were talking to me.*"
> ― Rusty
>
>

> "*It’s a question of your own self esteem.*"
> ― Katira
>
>

> "*You know, Evezan. I like you less and less the more I ask you questions.*"
> ― Katira
>
>

> "*You definitely see this thing look over and see you. I mean… it’s watching you. You guys are moving in so slowly.*"
> ― Jordan
>
>

> "*We’re delivering ourselves on a silver platter!*"
> ― Bota
>
>

> "*It seemed like a good idea at the time!*"
> ― Katira
>
>

> "*Here’s this one… also attacking Jawa Jimmy. I’m so sorry, you’re the only one there!*"
> ― Jordan
>
>

> "*It started off amazing. You run up like a ninja, attack with your swords and… the little creatures just dodge out of the way.*"
> ― Jordan
>
>

> "*So you said that Rusty can roll for you. Rusty got a 17, so… not super good*"
> ― Jordan
>
>

> "*Not super bad, better than my damage!*"
> ― Katira
>
>

> "*For the record: I didn’t kill you, your internet killed you.*"
> ― Rusty
>
>

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