Participants: Maximum 5. More and the Hutts would get upset.
Timeslots: Early Evening
Scrutiny: -0.5 Baseline. See below for how this amount may change.
Description: Aris N'ventas, along with his aspirations to strike rich again, lies dead in the streets. Also dead in the street are a few assailants and his bodyguards. Currently the crime scene is being handled by Hutt mercenaries who are on orders to not allow outsiders to check the bodies.
Let Me Through!: You must convince the guards to let you through. There are multiple ways to achieve this but you can only try one option. If you fail this step, you are unable to proceed further in the event. However, note that a Triumph on a success allows you to automatically vouch for another member, therefore letting them skip this step or make up for a prior failed check.
Note that each Threat deals strain damage. Despair deals 3 strain damage.
Finally, anyone who is on permanent retainer with the Hutt Cartels may pass on without problem. This does not include people who are hired on occasion.
- Charm (Presence) at Daunting Difficulty. If you are obviously a Jedi or a Sith, take 2 Setback Dice due to Malto Brin's discriminatory practices. Take 1 Boost Die if you have worked alongside Hutt Security Forces before in a job.
- Negotiation (Presence) at Average Difficulty. This requires a bribe from your own coffers at a minimum of 100 Credits. Each 50 Credits afterwards adds a Boost Die. Nothing can allow you to keep your money. However, on a failed check you do not hand over your money.
- Deception (Cunning) at Hard Difficulty with a baseline of 2 Setback Dice. Each Setback Die can be alleviated by name-dropping powerful figures. You can name drop Aris himself if you had taken Another Big Break or worked with him in the past. Once you run out of Setback Dice, you instead start gaining Boost Dice. The guards will report your usage of their name to them eventually. However, you may cancel out a name drop with two Advantage (with or without success). Take 1 Boost Die if you have worked alongside Hutt Security Forces before in a job.
- Coercion (Willpower) at Hard Difficulty. This will incur -0.1 Scrutiny per Threat generated, with a minimum of -0.1, as the guards eventually report your brazenness to their bosses. This is in addition to the strain gained. If you generate a Triumph on a success here you may instead void that penalty.
How Did This Happen?: This is where you discern where and how the attack happened. From here on, these successes will tally up Points for the Results. Note also that you may perform all of the rolls here but they are also optional. Failures will detract Points from the final outcome due to bad information on your part. A Triumph here either makes the failed check succeed or allows yourself/an ally to reroll another failed one.
Assisted Checks are allowed for this stage. However, if you help someone else, then you give up your ability to make that roll.
- Knowledge: Underworld (Intellect) at Daunting Difficulty. This is identifying who Crescent Shadow is. You may decrease this difficulty to Hard if you have worked with the Hutts before.
- Perception (Cunning) or Streetwise (Cunning) at Hard Difficulty. Add 1 Boost Die if your character has spent more than a year on Nar Shaddaa.
- Vigilance (Willpower) or Lore: Warfare (Intellect) at Hard Difficulty. This is placing yourself in the shoes of the guards who were ambushed. Those experienced in ambushes, such as Black Ops. or other paramilitary operations, may roll this with 1 Boost Die.
Investigate the Bodies: You do not need to be a medical expert to know that Aris was stabbed to death and the rest were killed by blaster fire. However, you have the opportunity to check out what the men had on them. Checking Aris or his bodyguards yield nothing fruitful but the assailants may have useful information. There are three dead insurgents for you to check, meaning you will follow the below routine three times.
For this stage, you should note that the steps may be done cooperatively and must be done consecutively. Multiple people may perform the same step and multiple people may repeat the same step on multiple bodies. This is also the most dangerous step, as triggering the failsafe results in an explosion. It deals a Critical Injury and 6 Damage base (with Breach 1) to the character with each Failure adding more. On a Despair, this blast also kills a mercenary, resulting in -0.3 Scrutiny. Incidentally, this also destroys the evidence on that corpse, resulting in another -0.1 Scrutiny.
Triumph here allows for a failed check to succeed or for the next step to be given a Boost Die. Finally, Assisted Checks are limited to one helper but you may do so for each roll.
- Cool (Presence) or Discipline (Willpower) at Average Difficulty. This increases to Hard Difficulty if one failsafe has already triggered and exploded. This is only rolled once the existence of the failsafe is known. Unlike other steps, this is just a consequential, one-time roll to see if you have the nerve to keep working on the scene. Failure gives you One Setback Die for the rest of the event.
- Perception (Cunning) at Average Difficulty. This is relatively easy to notice the insurgent's datapad. However, you must acquire 2 Advantage in order to notice the failsafe on the insurgent's corpse. A Despair, successful check or not, on this roll triggers it, killing a mercenary and doing the aforementioned damage. Unlike the other rolls here, this can be attempted by all participants in the case of failure.
- Skulduggery (Cunning) at Hard Difficulty with 2 Setback Dice. This is to take the datapad off of him. These dice may be removed if you are aware of the failsafe. You may instead use Mechanics (Intellect) if you are aware of the failsafe. Note that any uncanceled Threat or Despair, on a success or failure, triggers the failsafe on the corpse. Success here awards 1 Point for the final tally.
- Computers (Intellect) at Formidable Difficulty to gain admin access to the datapad. Each success on this roll grants you new information. Successfully opening this datapad awards 3 Points for the final tally in addition to the 1 Point given for retrieving it in the first place. Each Threat deals strain. On a failure, the datapad erases itself and melts down in your hand. At the very least, there is no loss of life or scrutiny. However, on a Despair, the datapad triggers the failsafe, kills a mercenary, and deals damage as normal.
Rewards/Outcome: As noted in each entry, you may have suffered more Scrutiny losses. Note that you are not permitted to keep any of the evidence, be it the shivs, datapads, or explosives. However, here are the tiers in terms of successes:
- 0 to 5 Points: You are outdone by the Hutt Security Personnel which is absolutely disgraceful. -0.3 Scrutiny.
- 6 to 11 Points: You give minimal aid to the Hutts, which at least saves them money. +0.1 Scrutiny.
- 12 to 17 Points: You are able to recompose the scene perfectly. +0.3 Scrutiny and receive a stipend of 250 Credits.
- 18+ Points: You discover a few locations that you are certain will be the next meeting location of Crescent Shadow. +0.5 Scrutiny and receive a stipend of 1000 Credits.
GM's Notes: I know this event is incredibly dense and perhaps hard to understand. In general, it will require multiple posts from each participant. Each of the three main stages must be completed before it moves on to the next stage. Stages 1 and 2 are mostly rolled individually while Stage 3 all the rolls are pooled together. I fully expect many questions to be asked about the structure of the event.
