After talking with the inhabitants of the small mining village of New Meen, the crew of the Vagrant learn the following information about the situation here. Their motivation is not only credits but working to counteract Teemo's activities here. If Teemo put a bounty out on them, they would do what they could to make things difficult for him.
A few months ago, a human contractor named Angu Drombb purchased a tract of land from one of Ryloth’s Feudal Oligarchs claiming that he was going to build a desert oasis leisure complex there. It soon became something of an open secret among the Rylothan underworld that Drombb planned to do nothing of the sort and was merely attempting to muscle in on the ryll trade.
No one seems to know who Drombb is; he seems to have no past. Despite this, he is throwing credits around. People suspect that he may be a front
man for a wealthy individual who wishes to remain anonymous. Could it be Teemo?
At first, Drombb’s presence was regarded as a blessing by the Twi’leks of New Meen, as his arrival coincided with the disappearance of a gang of Aqualish thugs who had been extorting credits and favors from ryll miners in the area. Within a short space of time, Drombb’s men began to make life difficult for the residents of New Meen. The pile of dirt surrounding the town was placed there by the developers and a number of power supplies have been “accidentally” damaged in the process of erecting the mound. Several minor acts of arson and larceny are also laid at the feet of the developers.
The Twi’leks have complained to the feudal oligarchs who sold the land, but they have clearly been bought by whoever backs Drombb.
From what they can tell, Drombb has about a dozen or so thugs. The goal seems to be to make life so difficult for the Twi’leks of New Meen that they abandon or sell the settlement. That would give Teemo what he wanted with less cost in the long run.
The miners of New Meen are still defiant in the face of Drombb’s campaign of intimidation, but they are becoming worn down. They are also becoming increasingly scared of an escalation in the thugs’ behavior; the thugs are becoming aggressive toward the miners and threats of violence have been made. In private, some of the miners have begun to talk about leaving New Meen, or making an offer of some sort to prospective buyers.
The team decides to pay Drombb and his cronies a visit.
Liberation of New Meen (Episode 14)
Moderator: GM Fang
Re: Liberation of New Meen (Episode 14)
The Drombb land extends from just outside New Meen (where he has left the pile of dirt) to the settlement he has built for his men and vehicles about a mile to the south. The Drombb settlement consists of a parking bay for his fleet of five large, tracked construction vehicles. An ugly gray prefabricated building has been erected to one side of the vehicle parking bay. There is also a fairly nice cantina.
As the team attempts to approach the settlement, they are spotted during their journey and a delegation of thugs shows up to meet them and scare them off. They approach and hail the crew by saying “I’d kriffing well turn back if I were you. You got no business being here!” The men are rude and aggressive. Spanner tries to offer some form of direct communication but one of the Aqualish present draws his pistol and fires off a shot into the dirt in front of them.
The firefight that erupts results in two of the thugs deaths and two stunned, due to Fl-AR3 and Spanner's more non-lethal fighting manner. The extended gunfire alerts the rest of the thugs to the danger. They arm themselves and prepare to defend the settlement, shooting from the doors of the cantina.
A second firefight erupts and once more the attackers are victorious. A stun grenade into the mix put the thugs on the defensive and the crew opens fire. This takes some time as the thugs are well armed and armored and their drunkenness seems to fuel their stamina, while also fouling their aim. As they take down the four thugs at the door, the two behind them that were stunned recover but are quickly stunned once more.
Drombb and his remaining men are ready for a last stand now from within the confines of their beloved cantina. They are all somewhat drunk and neither offer nor expect any quarter. Flare attempts to communicate with the group, but is hit by a blaster fire shot and he takes cover. Meanwhile, Kilian moves around to the back and looks to enter the cantina from the rear.
Flare sees that many of the tables have been turned over as makeshift barricades for cover. Aside from the fact that it has no stage, the cantina is
designed along similar lines to standard cantinas in this part of the galaxy. FL-AR3 bursts in through the cantina door and opens fire. This time something switches in the droid's cognitive circuitry and he flips his setting from stun to lethal and fires. The first thug shrieks as he is torn apart by the jury-rigged blaster rifle fire and he falls in a crumpled heap.
Drombb is little more than a thug himself, a heavy set and squat man with an angry red face and a shock of fluffy auburn hair. He tries to cultivate sophisticated airs and habitually wears an expensive suit, but he is naturally a vulgar man and finds the façade difficult to maintain. The firefight continues with Kilian coming in on the rear. Drombb and all but one of his men are felled. Meanwhile, the two original thugs that were stunned recovered again and Spanner sent them on their way to see where they would run off to and hopefully follow.
Checking the cantina over, the cantina closet contains plenty of drink and ration packets, as well as a locked safe. The key is conveniently located on Drombb's body on a chain around his neck. Inside are found 2000 credits, which Kilian proposes to keep in a group fund. With little else here, the crew heads over to the grey building they passed.
They find this is sort of a cross between a barracks and an apartment building. Most of the rooms on both floors are simple boarding rooms, but their are two offices on the upper floor. While one is relatively empty and mostly unfurnished, the other appears likely to be Drombb's office space. Lots of business paperwork can be found, but the computer is a model unlike one Spanner or FL-AR3 have seen before and they seem unable to turn it on, much less access it. However, Kilian has seen these before and boots up the machine, much to the others' chagrin.
Little of this information is of any use. Drombb has been fairly diligent in wiping his past communications, but two messages to a recipient
named “Thwheek” were sent within the last few days, and remain on the system.
"Yes it’s a risky business. I’m amazed Trex managed to get away with that droid technician Sivor without causing the whole thing to fall down on our heads. You never know with kriffing bugs, with their clades and castes and such. Annoy the one on top and you lose every other link in the chain. Start from scratch. I thought this whole deal was going to fall through when we lost the support of Duke Piddock, but Dimmock – he might be the bug for us."
and...
"Decapitated! Ha! Well, make sure he never gets to hear about that! I mean, don’t get me wrong, the bugs are kriffing hypocrites on the issue if you ask me. They’re more than happy to see dozens of drones squandered in their own games, but if he knew what happened with Sivor, it’d be all over for the deal. Hah, putting a tech-geek in the ring against you! What a way to go."
For the time being, the crew has succeeded. Teemo’s plans to muscle in on the ryll mining trade have been put on ice with the defeat of Drombb, and some of his best bounty hunters have met their end. The celebrating Twi’leks are sure to want the team to join them in drinking Drombb’s cantina dry.
--------------------------
Unused XPS
Spanner - 0
FL-AR3 - 15
Kilian - 15
Pron - 20
(To Be Continued!)
As the team attempts to approach the settlement, they are spotted during their journey and a delegation of thugs shows up to meet them and scare them off. They approach and hail the crew by saying “I’d kriffing well turn back if I were you. You got no business being here!” The men are rude and aggressive. Spanner tries to offer some form of direct communication but one of the Aqualish present draws his pistol and fires off a shot into the dirt in front of them.
The firefight that erupts results in two of the thugs deaths and two stunned, due to Fl-AR3 and Spanner's more non-lethal fighting manner. The extended gunfire alerts the rest of the thugs to the danger. They arm themselves and prepare to defend the settlement, shooting from the doors of the cantina.
A second firefight erupts and once more the attackers are victorious. A stun grenade into the mix put the thugs on the defensive and the crew opens fire. This takes some time as the thugs are well armed and armored and their drunkenness seems to fuel their stamina, while also fouling their aim. As they take down the four thugs at the door, the two behind them that were stunned recover but are quickly stunned once more.
Drombb and his remaining men are ready for a last stand now from within the confines of their beloved cantina. They are all somewhat drunk and neither offer nor expect any quarter. Flare attempts to communicate with the group, but is hit by a blaster fire shot and he takes cover. Meanwhile, Kilian moves around to the back and looks to enter the cantina from the rear.
Flare sees that many of the tables have been turned over as makeshift barricades for cover. Aside from the fact that it has no stage, the cantina is
designed along similar lines to standard cantinas in this part of the galaxy. FL-AR3 bursts in through the cantina door and opens fire. This time something switches in the droid's cognitive circuitry and he flips his setting from stun to lethal and fires. The first thug shrieks as he is torn apart by the jury-rigged blaster rifle fire and he falls in a crumpled heap.
Drombb is little more than a thug himself, a heavy set and squat man with an angry red face and a shock of fluffy auburn hair. He tries to cultivate sophisticated airs and habitually wears an expensive suit, but he is naturally a vulgar man and finds the façade difficult to maintain. The firefight continues with Kilian coming in on the rear. Drombb and all but one of his men are felled. Meanwhile, the two original thugs that were stunned recovered again and Spanner sent them on their way to see where they would run off to and hopefully follow.
Checking the cantina over, the cantina closet contains plenty of drink and ration packets, as well as a locked safe. The key is conveniently located on Drombb's body on a chain around his neck. Inside are found 2000 credits, which Kilian proposes to keep in a group fund. With little else here, the crew heads over to the grey building they passed.
They find this is sort of a cross between a barracks and an apartment building. Most of the rooms on both floors are simple boarding rooms, but their are two offices on the upper floor. While one is relatively empty and mostly unfurnished, the other appears likely to be Drombb's office space. Lots of business paperwork can be found, but the computer is a model unlike one Spanner or FL-AR3 have seen before and they seem unable to turn it on, much less access it. However, Kilian has seen these before and boots up the machine, much to the others' chagrin.
Little of this information is of any use. Drombb has been fairly diligent in wiping his past communications, but two messages to a recipient
named “Thwheek” were sent within the last few days, and remain on the system.
"Yes it’s a risky business. I’m amazed Trex managed to get away with that droid technician Sivor without causing the whole thing to fall down on our heads. You never know with kriffing bugs, with their clades and castes and such. Annoy the one on top and you lose every other link in the chain. Start from scratch. I thought this whole deal was going to fall through when we lost the support of Duke Piddock, but Dimmock – he might be the bug for us."
and...
"Decapitated! Ha! Well, make sure he never gets to hear about that! I mean, don’t get me wrong, the bugs are kriffing hypocrites on the issue if you ask me. They’re more than happy to see dozens of drones squandered in their own games, but if he knew what happened with Sivor, it’d be all over for the deal. Hah, putting a tech-geek in the ring against you! What a way to go."
For the time being, the crew has succeeded. Teemo’s plans to muscle in on the ryll mining trade have been put on ice with the defeat of Drombb, and some of his best bounty hunters have met their end. The celebrating Twi’leks are sure to want the team to join them in drinking Drombb’s cantina dry.
--------------------------
Unused XPS
Spanner - 0
FL-AR3 - 15
Kilian - 15
Pron - 20
(To Be Continued!)