Call of the Deadly Nightshade 6 - I Want To Be In That Number

The group decides to leave the Pirate base and upon their exit, they're met by a few confused guards. Trying to move past them, they decide to play music to get through the pirate guards and move towards some speeders to make their exit.

Jumping on speeders, they then fight their way out as the Lumini pirate base is seemingly destroyed by the unknown interlopers that the group just missed in the earlier missions.

## **Previously**

*Inside the pirate base on Rathalay, the group finds themselves at the exit of the pirate base and in front of a treasure room. First they debate how to access the treasures, as Bota frees their captured pirate survivor. Jimmy eventually slices the protective ray-shielding away and as they talk, they get ambushed by a few remaining pirates and their battle droids. In a surprise, Bota and Jowkazza both are wounded, but in the end, the group prevails - with the final shot coming from an arrow loosed by Maxie, their rescued hostage/compatriot.*

*With the immediate danger quelled, they go back to doing what they do best: debating wildly different plans - and this plan is all about how to get into the adjacent hallway where they've seen unknown foes and savage cybernetic beasts chewing through droids. Again plugging into a scomplink, Jimmy gets a shock and becomes wounded himself! With the door now open a crack, they continue talking until a Nexu and two Corellian Sand Panthers attack. Making quick work of the beasts, they head into the corridor.*

*Wondering if they made the right move, they hear an ominous voice threaten them specifically which leaves them further doubting the current course of action.*

## **Recap**

### Consequences and Decisions

Standing together in the once-locked corridor of the pirate base on Rathalay, the team now has a key decision to make. Will they continue on the most likely deadly and difficult path that they fought and worked so hard for last mission? Or will they head back through the blast door and out the exit the base as they originally intended?

Additionally, they dwell on a few mistakes - they probably should’ve rescued Swagg’s R1 unit and maybe they should’ve dealt with the Nexu in the room they left.

Coming to a decision at last, they decide to exit the hallway - and the base - but not the way they came in. Bota tells Maxie to stick close as they’re looking for a new exit. As the move down the end of the hallway, they see two areas that lead somewhere. Bota takes the northern passage while Jowkazza takes the southern one.

> *“Blaine, what’s your name? Stig? Come on, Stig!” - Bota*
> *"You guys should just always call yourselves by your stage names rather than these other names you keep using.” - Maxie
> “You’re exactly right, Maxie. It’s not our strong suit to remember our stage names.” - Bota
> “We couldn’t even remember your name.. uhh.. you.” - Blaine*
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Bota finds both a stairwell and a turbolift that could go up or down. Investigating, he sees there’s no scorch marks in lift and looks for monitoring devices. He also notices that the turbo lift has recently returned from a lower level. Trying to decipher codes like ‘LL and BL’ - he advocates going upwards.

> *“Let’s go, Jawa Jimmy.. I mean, Daft Punk… Jimmy.” - Bota*
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Jowkazza also investigates and sadly only finds an axe to use in case of fires.. but no shovel.

Heading up the stairway, they encounter a cave-in. Full of rocks and debris, they are blocked from their exit. Debating on whether they should, in Rusty’s words, “we could always just blow it up” Blaine pieces some parts of the puzzle in front of them together. Seeing a hand in the rubble, Blaine deduces that it seems like reinforcements of some kind were heading into the base and this stairway - and the entrance/exit - was blown up to stop them. “Hm, someone blew it up before us.”

Now that they understand that the exit was intentionally demolished to block the path out, they need to figure the best path forward. Down the lower staircase are some still-fresh bodies strewn about. The groups turns toward Rusty, who pulls out his remote detonated timer mine and gives a safety talk inspired by the incident with the little lizard monkey that took out half of a docking bay back on Coruscant. With the team a safe distance away, Rusty places the charge and moves down the hall, turns around the corner, and covers his ears.
> *"I made sure to set the timer mine real long this time." - Rusty to Jawa Jimmy*
> *A certain person is going to further back and is going to push Maxie in front of him because he knows what to do in case of emergency. - Chris C.*
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After a period so long that people start to wonder if Rusty actually set the mine, an enormous explosion rocks the group's collective eardrums. Earth-shatteringly loud, Rusty replies: "All right, I think that worked."
Moving towards the now-exploded exit (possibly to get to any uncovered junk first), Jawa Jimmy performs an expert ocular survey of the debris and finds the exit through the still-hot rubble scattered through the wrecked structure.
> *"I feel like one of those girls in little stories growing up, where you just go out in the woods and you end up in adventures." - Maxie*
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### Marching On Together

The group finally exits out of the pirate base and onto the exterior upper eastern battlement area. The base itself was built into the jungle at the base of a waterfall, allowing it to blend in with the jungle and hide the pirates themselves. Arranged similar to a step pyramid, the base has several levels of battlements, with both areas below and above the group. As they exit from the rubble onto their platform, they're greeted by one very confused Rodian pirate.

Bota Zi, attempts to speak with the pirate and even with his knowledge of the Rodian language, can't quite converse with the pirate and Jowkazza then quick follows up by explaining that they're looking for the stage to perform - since, after all, they're the band. Jowkazza is also not quite able to get his point across to the pirate and then the group realizes that they don't all have their weapons drawn. Fine for a real band, but not ideal for them. He then motions for them to surrender while Bota motions that he stops pointing his blaster at them.

Blaine then speaks up and says they were a band abandoned downstairs and were just playing a gig. The Rodian guard, Dreedo, claims they don't normally keep bands downstairs, that he'd never seen them, and in fact, the woman they were traveling with should still be locked up. Bota, the band's manager, comes forward and asserts himself - saying that they need to be pointed to a stage and they're going to finish this concert whether the guard likes it or not.
> *"Well, if you're stuck up here guarding, don't you want a show while you're stuck up here waiting for something else to happen?" - Bota, as Bogus West*
> *"I mean.. what's going on..." - Dreedo, Confused Pirate Guard*
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Encouraging him to tell Bogus his favorite music genre, the guard admits he likes polka. As Bota (as Bogus West) continues to try to convince the guards to let them perform, Blaine (as Stig McNasty) begins to play his Kloo Horn. While it's not the best performance, Jimmy joins in and soon, Maxie is coerced to contribute with vocals.
> *"I don't know... what the hell's going on here but.. what the hell's going on here?" - Bana Keeg, Confused Lumeni Pirate Guard*
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As the performance goes on, Bota motions to Jowkazza to move forward while he distracts the guards and Bana Keeg, the Kyuzo pirate leader, sends Short Pot, a Chadra-fan pirate, around to check the escape route the band exited the base from. As the groups moves closer to the guards, they see the rest of the pirates who are guarding posts and a makeshift garage area about 20 feet below them with Imperial Speeder Bikes and an armored Freerunner Transport.
> *"Hey boys, let's leave them with one of our greatest hits.. 'When The Saints Go Marching Out'" - Bota, as Bogus West*
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Turning to Bana Keeg, Bota tells him that he will lead their band down the platform in the front of the group - imitating a famous Jizz style street procession as the band plays their hit tune (which Maxie also seems to know the words to). Pulling a blaster on Bana Keeg, the group plays their best song yet as they make their march out to the clearing - it goes unnoticed until an Ithorian guard notices Bota's blaster in the back of their comrade Bana Keeg. At the same time, the Chadra-Fan, who was sent behind the group, emerges from his investigation shouting: "They're dead! They're all dead!"
Making a mad dash to the nearby speeders, Bota motions to Blaine to take the Imperial Speeder Bike to scout ahead for the group, while the rest of the group runs to the Freerunner transport - except Jowkazza. He runs to the second speeder, turns it on, and moves back to grab the shovel he saw on his descent from the battlement to the garage/clearing around. Grabbing the shovel, he does a tough 180 turn, and then makes a difficult jump from the speeder onto the Freerunner - sending the second speeder to a fiery explosion.

### Exit Stage Left

As the group begins their escape, (which includes the Kyuzo Bana Keeg, which they shove in the Freerunner) they see a second clearing area to the south that has also been converted to a vehicle landing bay - with one Mon Cal Lumini pirate on a speeder bike already in hot pursuit. Putting themselves in gunner seats aboard the Freerunner, which includes Maxie who gets the first shot off - missing wildly. This makes Bana Keeg laugh uncontrollably but next up is Jimmy who completely explodes the pirate's speeder with his shot, sending the Mon Cal through the air to his (likely) untimely death.

As the group continues their escape, they are assaulted by the Lumini pirates on the platforms above them but with the armor and Bota's even-keeled 'cruising' speed, the Freerunner takes no damage as it moves away from the base. Jimmy takes aim at the next pursuer and blows him up as well.

With one final pirate guard on their trial, Jowkazza looks back and growls, intimidating him somewhat. Bota rips the landspeeder into high-gear guides the Freerunner transporter around a turn and barely scooting around the enemy's shot. The pirate aims but doesn't quite hit the group. They return fire, but once again it's Maxie who lands the last shot while murmuring 'While the saints go marching in.'

Finally free of the pirates and their base, the group can now navigate freely - with one hitch... the landspeeder only has 50 minutes worth of fuel left.

Looking back at the base, the group sees a large bulk freighter lift off from underground, underneath the water. Unsure of whether this ship belongs to the pirates or the enemies they faced earlier, they do understand that the base is now likely flooded.

The group, along with Maxie and Bana Keeg, they continue on with their journey - which now includes a shovel.

## **Featured Characters**

### **Our Heroes**

* Blaine Hansom
* Bota Zi
* Jawa Jimmy
* Jowkazza

### **NPCs**

* Rusty (Although he sounded a little different..)
* Sparky
* An unconscious Droo
* Maxie
* Head of 8t88

### **Enemies**

* Rathalay pirates:
	+ Dreedo, Rodian Lumini pirate guard
	+ Bana Keeg, Kyuzo Lumini pirate leader
	+ Short Pot, Chadra-Fan Lumini pirate guard
	+ An unnamed Ithorian Lumini pirate guard
	+ An unnamed Mon Cal Lumini pirate speeder pilot (likely dead)
	+ An unnamed Twi'lek Lumini pirate speeder pilot (dead)

### **Mentioned**

* Captain Swagg
* Swagg's R1 co-pilot

## **Inventory**

* +1 Imperial Speeder Bike (Blaine)
* +1 armored Freerunner Transport (+Group)

## **Rewards**

* - 10 CPs for Jowkazza to grab shovel and maneuver speeder bike back to the Freerunner
* -5 CPs for Jowkazza to jump onto the Freerunner
* +4 CPs

## **Notes**

* Right before "Rusty" uses the timer mine (31:54), Luke drinks some of the Diplomatico CP gave him on his Birthday the year prior
* Maxie calls Jawa Jimmy "DDP" as nickname for Debonair Daft Punk
* It's now been established that Sparky, in his disguise, does not have rockets
* Jowkazza sadly notices a shovel back near the guards as they run for life away from the pirates
* Jordan exits the mission when Blaine jumps off his speeder bike due to leaving for his European trip early the next day
* Jowkazza used one of the most amounts of Character Points in a single mission since Genos used a dozen to save Bota's life

## **Quotations**

> *“If it’s one thing I’ve learned playing in a band for 15 years, it’s that women loved to be negged.” - Blaine*
> *“If it’s one thing I’ve learned over being a lawyer for the last 5 years is that overconfident men get everything they deserve in court.” - Maxie*
> *“When’s the last time Blaine’s been in court?" - Bota*
> *“When I won Cloud City.” - Blaine*
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> *"I feel like Bota Zi should get 2 rounds of invincibility as a birthday reward.” - Luke*
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> *“Or we take the elevator.” - Blaine
> “I think we call it a turbolift normally. but I know you back country weird coruscant people have names for things.” - Maxie
> “I mean ‘L’ as in ‘lower level’ and ‘Vader’ because we all like Darth Vader.” - Blaine*
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> *“You’re an inspector now too?” - Luke
> “Yeah, we’re a band that travels around solving mysteries. I can’t wait to rip off the bad guy’s mask and realize it was a land speculator all along.” - Jordan
> “It was actually Droo the whole time - ‘we thought you were sleeping!’” - Luke*
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> *"6D for demolitions and we can use 3 of his Character Points, he won't mind." - Luke on using Rusty to set the explosives for the group*
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> *"The other map had a lot of dead bodies on it, let's put it that way." - David on the route not explored by leaving the base instead of going downward*
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> *"I just thought [the rodian] would speak like: ‘bep buup buup bup bep bur..'" - Luke*
>  *"Fine, roll your languages." - David*
> *"Ha! I speak Rodian [rolls a 7d6 with 5 ones] ...I’m a little rusty with my Rodian…" - Luke*
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> *"Blaine's late coming up, he's speaking with Maxie - calming her down after Jimmy put his hands on her." - David*
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> *"As much as I appreciate the music.. which is very little.." - Bana Keeg, Lumini Guard*
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> *"I am the trap!" - Luke doing the voice of the Mon Cal speeder pirate*
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