Unexpected Reactions

Womanne felt like she was moving in slow motion, everything around her sped up.  A human had walked out of the rodian room with a hostage. Womanne had no idea what that hostage was suppose to accomplish. She guessed the human must have thought they were someone else. He kept edging towards them but his hostage was stumbling.

Womanne leveled her blaster, still set on stun, and shot his hostage point blank. "Shavit!" the human screamed as he quickly readjusted to keep the hostage in front of his body. He wouldn't be making it to the turbolift.

Womanne looked on as the others took their opportunity to shoot the human with multiple stun bolts. She looked to J-9. "Drag these bodies into our room."   "I am a free droid. I take orders from no one."  "...please."

As the boys dragged the bodies into their room, Womanne went into the rodian room.  She quietly surveyed the place. It looked almost untouched save a depression in one of the beds where the human likely sat listening to the fire-fight. As she looked through the room for anything of value she realized that it was suddenly quiet. So quiet she could hear the blaster shot as if it were firing beside her.

She peered out the door and saw Dorge standing in the doorway of their room looking disappointed. The turbolift dinged, it had reached the 2nd floor on it's way down. Womanne could feel her stomach in her throat. It would all be over. She fought with herself trying to decide if she could hide under the rodian bed and avoid the oncoming slaughter. None of them had seen her face.

Dorge turned towards the turbolift ready to greet whatever comes through those doors. Womanne hustled into their room. As she entered, the others were throwing dead bodies out the door and a stunned rodian into the refresher. Vin's face looked a little darker, shadows around his eyes. It was probably just the hotel lighting.

They closed the doors. Ding. The turbolift opened with armed guards. They looked at Dorge and spoke stern but not violent. Dorge turned to their room and the guard knocked.  Womanne opened the door and showed them the unconscious rodian. They took him and entered the turbolift. There was no use staying here now. Everyone boarded the lift and descended back to the ground floor.

Womanne found herself disappointed. Her first rebel mission - a bust. Then, she remembered all the imperial data they had discovered in the cave. She decided it was time to com the rebel ship and see what happens next.

Relentless Dinging

You know that sound a turbolift makes when the doors are closing and you stick your hand out to keep it open for just a few seconds?

Womanne wasn't sure exactly what happened. She was relaxing in the refresher unit trying to make up for years of filth. She scrubbed again wondering if her neck would ever feel clean.  She faintly heard running and slamming and blasts. Then, Vin's voice thundered and she knew this was as clean as she was going to get.

Quickly she dressed and ran towards the door. She pulled it open slowly and saw rodians in the hallway. Dorge was somewhere between amused and frustrated and stun bolts were flying. That's when she heard the first ding. There was a dead rodian laying in the floor bridging the hallway and open turbolift. ding

Womanne switched her heavy blaster to stun and whipped out the door. ding The remaining rodian dodged a couple more shots before finally taking one square in the chest. ding Looking around puzzled, she could see that everyone else was also caught by surprise at the sudden firefight. Everyone's eyes settled on Dorge, ding. still smirking. He cast a strange look at Womanne ding as if he had something to tell her but not in front of Vin. Whatever it was ding Womanne knew she probably didn't want to hear it. ding

Vin screamed. "One rodian  made it down the lift and now we'll be lucky to get out of this frackin place alive." Great. It's never easy is it?  ding

The door opened to the rodian room. ding

Elevator Music

As Wom'anne rode up the lift tube to her room on the 2nd floor listening to the electroharp melody playing she thought about how they were going to get out of this. Brannigan was more than likely either in a pile of dust or that crater left by the detonator. They would not get their money from him, nor would they get their easy transportation to somewhere safe. Safe. She laughed to herself as she exited the lift tube.

She collapsed on her cot, fully clothed, almost exhausted. In the dark she saw his face in every shadow.
Just as she began to dream a wonderful dream there was a knock at the door.
Wom'anne leapt from her cot, touched her blaster, surveyed the room. They were all here.
She walked to the peephole and saw a hotel boy with the J-9 droid. There would be questions.
How could they have thought posting a droid at the lift tube wouldn't raise suspicions.
She must handle this quickly. She smashed that open button as hard as she could.

Even though she still looked starved, she made herself sound as strong and large as a trandoshan. The poor boy was almost crying when she was done with him. He almost ran back to the lift tube. As it opened, Wom'anne noted that the music playing now was a Kloo horn.

Everyone was awake now. She sat on her cot and tried to think but it was hard with Dorge jumping on his bed hitting the ceiling. She heard the lift tube ding and walked to the door. Looking thru the peephole she could see the ... same hotel boy. He looked nervous. Good.

She waited for him to knock and repeated the show. This time, she insisted that he move them to a better room. It worked.  Now they could check out the rodians upstairs. They are a violent people and if ever you needed a good mercenary, they were probably your best bet. Perhaps they were the ones that took out Brannigan before we got here.

Riding the lift tube to the 3rd floor they listened to some more electroharp.  As they approached their suite, Wom'anne thought about just marching up to the rodian's door. But, she decided a hot shower would probably be the better idea for now. They may not always have the luxury.

Trust Issues

Wom'anne thought she should care more as the dealer scooped up the creds she had laid on the table. But they were a dead man's creds and she was only disappointed that she was that much further from being able to afford....
Well, what she really wanted was just a little bit of normal back. Could buying things that made her more comfortable or useful buy back normal? As she stood and walked back to the Jubilee Wheel she realized that normal was not an option anymore.

She made her way to the elevator. Passing the protocol droid J-9 she almost flashed a smile. She felt as empty and cold as a droid. They had stripped her of her identity, her freedom, her dreams.  She had lost her love - her moon and stars. She was adrift with no points to navigate herself.

She had lost so much.

All she had left was revenge.

Unanswered Questions

As the morning sun rose in the sky, Fe'male's heart sank. The scout had not returned.
As unwise as it was to venture forward into the unknown dangers ahead, maybe they could sneak in and figure out what happened. The human seemed especially opposed to the idea, but he followed along as the only alternative was to be left alone in the woods.

They slowly crept through the forest as quiet as possible. The human jumping as each branch cracked under Fe'male's foot. Finally they heard the sounds of a camp. Carefully they approached and tried to flank the area, looking for any sign of Lume the scout.

As they scanned the camp, she saw a familiar face. Fe'male's face must have looked ablaze, the bronze scales shining with anger. The tiefling was sitting on a bench with his hand on the back of their companion, Lume.  He was laughing.

Fe'male stood tall and entered the camp, taking the hobgoblin guards slightly by surprise. She bounded towards the tiefling. Luckily, the paladin spoke first with remarks of relief for Lume's sake. Fe'male stood by his side and did not take her eyes off of the tiefling. She heard little of the explanation of how Lume came to be so drunk or how the tiefling had arrived before them. Her head swam with rage.

She forced her emotions to subside just in time to hear the paladin agree to the hobgoblin's generous offer of staying the night, but just a single night. They were given directions towards the nearest town, only 2 days walk from here. If the innkeepers family had been in trouble out this way, it is likely that they would head for that town to seek aid.

Fe'male found time before they retired to sleep to make mention of her distrust for the tiefling. During the day the party was witness to mourners who lamented over a lost boy. Fe'male could only assume it was the same boy that the tiefling was 'nursing' to health. Why would he come and not mention the boy? What plans did he have for the hobgoblins? for themselves?

Second-Guessing

They sit in the woods in silence, waiting for any sound. It had only been hobgoblin youngling splashing in the river, but where there are youngling ...
Fe'male suggested they send a scout. Lume, the half-elf, was the lightest on his feet so he took off into the forest as the sun began to set. Fe'male watched him weave through the trees until she lost sight of him.
In battle Fe'male would have sent a scout without hesitation. She was not these men's commander. Instead, she was an equal and did not feel that ordering a man into the forest to face a war party was her command to make.
The paladin took the first watch.


Fe'male saw her brother. He was right in front of her. 
He was yelling orders, but she could not hear his voice. All was silent. 
She was on the shoreline, surrounded by dragonborn soldiers. 
She turned to her brother again. He was clad in battle-ready armor, weapon raised.
He faced ahead and made the call to charge.  Something was wrong.
He ran ahead. Fe'male tried to keep up. 
She struggled to run but everything around her moved forward faster.
Fear and anxiety washed over her as the army began to enter the mountain pass ahead.
The entire army had entered the pass and she was still struggling to run.
Finally she entered the pass but to her horror all she saw was slain dragonborn.
She ran past them searching for her brother.
In the distance, she saw his armor leaning against a tree. His back was to her.

"It's your watch" the paladin woke Fe'male.
It was not hard to stay awake. Her heart was pounding.
The scout had not returned during the paladin's watch. Surely the camp had not been very far. The youngling group would not venture out too far from camp. Fe'male tried to decide if the anxiety she felt now was truly about the scout's well-being.

Wasting Time

Perhaps it was fate that these four were at the inn when it became obvious that the lady innkeeper was in a bit of trouble. The paladin, Roland, would say it was Avandra looking over them.  The human, Merghast, would say he was just in the wrong place at the wrong time.  Fe'male believed that while this was a diversion from her main task of returning to her own family, that reuniting this family in need was a worthy diversion.

Now, faced with the grim discovery before them, had the whole thing just been a waste of effort?

However, this was just one body. If it truly was the innkeeper's husband or son, where was the other? Surely the only need to separate would have been injury. The survivor should have headed back to the inn for help. After a quick but thorough search of the surrounding woods, it was decided that they would have to continue searching. Perhaps there is another close house that could know what came of these men.

As they ventured forward they could hear a strange sound on the wind. It sounded of splashing water and voices. Fe'male smelled something on the air.  She would have to stay as the rest ventured quietly ahead to scout it out. Merghast chose to stay as well, so she wouldn't have to stand alone. He was definitely not afraid of the unknown possible stampede of strange animals ahead.