Fwurg

[Jaicen Hedoss]

"The god of breath-able air ladies and gentlemen. The bisshop of breathable air is here! I thought that space travel would require a god of space travel though." Jaicen's droid remarks to his fellow Jedi as the shuttle is coming down.

"Greetings Sir Loshro Dunefis, it is very nice to see you too!" says Jaicen's TG-100 as he extends his hand to shake the hand of the bisshop.

"Well, the problem is basically that we would like to give you aids, as discussed with your Duke. And the people here do not want this, citing religeous reasons to block our goods. Somehow they think they are allowed to stop our help to the people who really need it. They have come with clubs, and after a short talk they started screaming or praying. Since this could get out of hand quickly, Danar called you."

[Bishop Loshro Dunefis (mask of Storyteller (Brend))]

Bishop Loshro DunefisThe bishop shook the offered hand. Then, he clearly paid attention to Jaicen's explanation and waits until Jaicen is finished before asking a follow-up question. Since no one adds further explanation for the current situation, the bishop replies.

"So, just to be sure I understand the situation.", he stated with a warm voice, "You talked with his highness the Duke and agreed to deliver aid goods to this moon. Now that you are here to deliver the goods, you have discovered that the people here do not want your help and have come with clubs to stop you. You went to talk with them, and they suddenly started screaming?"

"That does not sound very logical.", he concluded with a short pause. "Usually people are happy to receive aid, especially when their cities are crumbling to the ground. People that need help do no suddenly start screaming."

"The Jedi are known for their honesty and virtue, so I can be sure that that is all that happened, can I not?", he looked at the Jedi with a stern face.

His two associates simply waited. While they did so Kupud, the togruta male, looked around at the scientists camp with the experienced gaze of a tactician getting an idea of the situation. He paid close attention to the diverted shuttles with goods, and the Praetorian soldiers he spots.

Lady Vitress, the human female, is more interested in the Jedi and can't keep her eyes off them for long, she seems especially interested in Darones and Jaicen, her attention frequently drawn to either TG-100 or Jaicen's hoverchair. As Jaicen catches her eye, she smiles at him for a split second before quickly looking away.

[Jaicen Hedoss]

"Yes we did. We talked to the Duke and we were welcomed to bring our aid goods." Jaicen replies. "When we came here the people here arrived and told us we were heathens. After I tried to talk to them, asking them what their problem was, they were calling us heathens, were twisting my words, and after a short conversation they started to chant and pray. This is exactly what happened." Jaicen tells the bishop with a straight face, and Jaicen actually meant this.

Noticing the interest of the Lady Vitress, and after the bisshop was gone and it was appropriate, Jaicen introduced himself to the woman, while the security togruta looked around the campsite. "Good day ms. Vitress, I am Jaicen, as you probably already heard. You are the spiritual adviser to the Bisshop?"

[Ariana Danacia]

Noticing that this explanation of Jaicen would not solve the issue Ariana decided to finally intervene.

Ariana stepped forward and first turned towards Jaicen.

"This is not completely what happened Jaicen. You left out the small details about the fact that you tried to convince the young priest that these goods were blessed by their gods and they did not believe this. You might have mentioned the wrong gods or said something else that did not match with their believes... This is why they called you a heathen and a liar in fact."

Directly after finishing her last words directed at Jaicen she turned towards the bishop and made a short bow.

Greetings Bishop, I am Jedi Knight Ariana Danacia. We are very sorry for this incident Bishop. Jaicen did not mean any harm, however the young priest clearly did not agree with him and must have an ulterior motive to start this riot. A more wise calm priest would have explained Jaicen the situation before resorting to such crude words like heathen and liar.

Bishop, could you talk to the young priest and try to find out what they actually want?"

[Jaicen Hedoss]

"That is right, I tried to convince them that they blessed by priest, we are priests and the Duke is also a priest.. " Jaicen mumbles with a disgruntled voice .....

[Danar Gistor]

"Greetings Bishop." Danar Gistor said: "Also on behalf of the Union we are grateful that you are willing to help negotiate this incident to a peaceful solution. I am Danar Gistor, Master Foreign Investigation, from the Union ministry of foreign affairs. Sadly we of the investigation team have little idea what is going on and why the protesters are acting like they are."

[Bishop Loshro Dunefis (mask of Storyteller (Brend))]

((OOC: @Jaicen: I suggest you do not declare what the NPCs are doing, since you do not know what they are going to do. In this case: the togruta is not going to look around the campsite while the bishop is talking with the protesters...))

Bishop Loshro DunefisThe bishop listens to the continued explanation in simple silence. Because of their finely honed Jedi senses, the Jedi know that he catches Jaicen's mumbling, but he does not react to it. After both Ariana and Danar Gistor have had their say, he clearly thinks the situation over for a while.

"It is clear that there is a misunderstanding. Now that I have heard your version of events, I shall go and talk with the protesters to hear their side of the story."

With that, he walks off in the direction of the chanting. The togruta quickly joins the bishop, while lady Vitress stays behind.

[Storyteller (Brend)]

With the bishop and the togruta gone, Lady Vitress suddenly finds herself alone with the two Jedi and the official from the ministry of foreign affairs. This creates an awkward silence, as she appears to be a little intimidated by Ariana's appearance.

Luckily, the awkward silence quickly breaks as Jaicen introduces himself.

"It is very nice to meet you, Jaicen.", she said with a peculiar tone of voice as she walked over to him.

"I am more of an assistant really", she replies as she looks him in the eye, "though I must admit that adviser sounds so much more refined.", she smiles. "I think you are very brave. Coming all the way out here, to a planet ravished by earthquakes to deliver aid goods and help us. May I take a closer look at your speaking droid? He seems more advanced than other droids..."

((OOC: Please work your character's location/movement in your next post; I want to know who can see what for the final part. Note that from where Jaicen, Ariana, Gistor and Vitress currently are, they can not see the bishop's discussion, and vice versa.

If you do not note your location, I'll assum you stay where you are without paying attention to anything in particular.))

[Jaicen Hedoss]

((OOC: That is not actually the case... you specifically said he was looking around the campsite.. I Quote: " looked around at the scientists camp with the experienced gaze "))

[Storyteller (Brend)]

((OOC: Please do not quote only part of the relevant post. I wrote: "His two associates simply waited. While they did so Kupud, the togruta male, looked around at the scientists camp with the experienced gaze of a tactician getting an idea of the situation. He paid close attention to the diverted shuttles with goods, and the Praetorian soldiers he spots."

That is, while the other two characters are waiting, the togruta looks around at the camp. I did not say that he remains doing so should the bisshop walk away (he would be a rather poor bodyguard if he would actually leave the bisshop's side in a situation like this...)

Regardless, this does not impact the further roleplay. I simply wanted to point out that you presumed the behaviour of an NPC.))

[Jaicen Hedoss]

((OOC: Just so you would know which part of the post.....And yes I presumed it because he was doing it in the previous post :). furthermore ./care it does not affect anymore indeed :)))

Jaicen stays with lady Vitress and lets the bisshop do his talking with the protestors.

"Thank you, although it is not as dangerous as you might think." Jaicen replies, "You may take a look, of course, his name slash number is TG-100. Although to be honest, I thought you people did not care much about technology?"

Meanwhile Jaicen lets his droid walk towards him (assuming the droid was already near) and lets the droid hand over his lightsaber to Jaicen as a precaution. With the droid right next to him, to make sure she does not touch anything which could do something to the droid, he starts explaining some workings of the droid to Lady Vitress.

[Ariana Danacia]

Ariana nods to the Bishop when he tells them that he will speak to the group.

Ariana quickly puts on her cloak and puts the hood of the cloak over her head. She has no intention to draw too much attention to herself.

Ariana follows the bishop as well at a short distance. Depending on what the Bishop does she stays at a short distance behind him. However if he moves into the group of protesters she stops at the side of the group and waits.

[Danar Gistor]

Wanting to let go well, Gistor followed the Bishop to the crowed so he is quickly available when his attention is required.

[Darones Rei]

"Thank you,"

Darones replied to the scientist that he was speaking with, seeing the man was clearly a bit disappointed at the seemingly harsh reaction from Darones with regards to the current facilities.

"I did not mean to cause any offense." he explained, "I simply want to make sure that we can help the people as best we can. In order for that to happen and see how we are able to organise the logistics with the current means available, we will need to start delivering them. Perhaps the new arrivals, " Darones referred to the Bishop's arrival, "can help get that underway a bit faster."

Darones then went to speak briefly with one of the officers of the Praetorian guard-detail that provided some security.
"I suggest that we keep the amount of military personnel on the ground to the bare minimum, I don't want our hosts to get the wrong impression. We are not an occupation force, but merely here to offer humanitarian aid."

[Storyteller (Brend)]

((OOC: I ran Force Level + Vision checks for you all. Jaicen scored 8, Ariana scored 12, and Darones scored 10.))

Ariana, Darones and Danar Gistor

Ariana and Danar Gistor follow the bishop but hang back when he moves into the group. Remaining at the edge of the group, Ariana's jedi cloak helps her be less noticable than the praetorian soldiers, one of which is currently talking to Darones. As the bishop speaks with the two priests, Ariana notices something odd: the younger priest seems at first surprised to see the bishop here, and then becomes angry over something as he argues with the bishop.

With her military background Ariana recognizes that some of the people in the crowd react to this not like a normal angry mob, but in the way special operatives would react if their direct commander is in trouble: they shift positions, making sure to be within reach of the bishop and his bodyguard. The bishop seems unaware of the situation and keeps arguing with the priest, the togruta bodyguard notices something's off as well, and looks around warily, but seems to miss the special operatives.

This might not go as smooth as hoped...

Jaicen

At the same time, Jaicen explains some of the workings of TG-100 to lady Vitress, who shows much interest in the droid as the pair talked a bit.

"It is true that many here do not care much for technology, but I find technology to be fascinating. Your droid for example, it is a work of art. The way it is balanced, the smoothness of the moves...", as she speaks, she moves around TG-100, clearly admiring Jaicen's handiwork.

"You must be very proud of it", she says as she bends over to take a close look at TG-100's complex hip joints. Incidentally, this provides Jaicen with generous view into her dress which suddenly shows a lot of cleavage. He also gets a better look at the crystal pendant she is wearing. For a moment it is as if a dim blue light glows within the pendant, casting a ghostly unnatural blue light on her exposed skin, but the next moment it is a normal shard of crystal again.

"It is a true work of art, and I see great inspiration and insight reflected in its design. It is as if the will of the universe flows through it, granting it a will of its own." Lady Vitress moves to stand upright again and looks at Jaicen with a smile. "It even carries your weapon for you, You must trust it a lot.", she added with a nod to the lightsaber. Just as she was about to say something more, Vitress is distracted by something in the distance as she glances to the north-western horizon for a moment.

Everyone

Just then the three Jedi felt a strong disturbance in the Force: a warning of things to come. Mere seconds later everyone felt the earth tremble, immediately followed by a second tremor shaking the earth violently.

The bishop stumbled backwards, but was caught by his bodyguard. The older priest started stumbling as well, but the younger priest quickly grabbed him. Behind them, Ariana and Danar Gistor heard stacked supply crates crash to the ground.

Jaicen, sitting in his hoverchair had not trouble with the tremors, but TG-100's reflexes were tested. Lady Vitress took an involuntary step backward and almost tripped over a rock but quickly regained her balance by grabbing hold of TG-100's metal arm.


Just as quick as the shaking comes, it is gone again. In the aftermath, the Bishop and the younger priest exchange a few additional words. It seems that the quakes have changed the younger priests mind about the matter. Soon, bishop Loshro Dunefis and his man Kupud Umakra start making their way back over to Ariana and then going with her and Darones, walking back to Jaicen and lady Vitress.

While the others are walking over Vitress looks at Jaicen with a curious expression before letting go of TG-100's arm. In a reflex, she feels if her pendant is still there before checking if her hair is still in order. She turns to Jaicen to say something, but is interrupted as the bishop arrives with the other Jedi.

"I have talked over the situation with the priests,", the bishop speaks with a warm voice, "And I think this whole matter is just a misunderstanding. The priest and his people were informed by someone that a group of unbelievers was going to bring them supplies and medicine, and that accepting it would anger the gods and bring their wrath down on the cities of Kons."

"I spoke with the two priests, and they have agreed to accept the goods if I inspect them first. Of course, it would be very helpful in this if you offer a sincere apology for lying to them about these goods being blessed by Jedi priests. I know, as well as you do that Jedi are not priests and that there are, in fact, no jedi priests.", he looks at Jaicen, "And I am very sure that the Duke did not bless these goods either."

"So, unless you have objections to this plan, I suggest we start with the apology. Followed by me very clearly and deliberately opening some crates while in view of the protestors. So no one will be able to say that the goods weren't really inspected."

((OOC: I leave it to you lot to discuss the matter of the apology amongst yourselves. The Bishop, his bodyguard and his assistant will stick around for a reasonable time until you have decided your course of action.

Once this matter is resolved, the Mission is completed. I know that Ariana still has a meeting with captain Kindalin on the schedule, but I'm fine with doing that either after the mission end, or to let it happen off-screen (depending on what Ariana's player wishes).

In the interest of speed I suggest that we increase our posting frequence a bit. I hope to wrap this up before the end of the year ^_^))

[Ariana Danacia]

Ariana listened to the Bishop and nodded in agreement during his closing words.

"Jaicen will you show them that you are a humble Jedi and apologize to these people?

I would advice you to do this, however since the apology needs to be sincere you will have to decide for yourself. Will you?"

If Jaicen responds positive and decides to apologize to the people Ariana continues with:

"Please do not try to explain them your view on their gods, because we are outsiders. Just keep it short and simple."

Ariana turned away for a second and activated her ear-piece. "Bring us a shipment of the goods, the bishop will inspect the goods in front of the people."

((OOC: I am fine with having the conversation after the mission or off-screen. I don't intend to have a long conversation, I just want to see how he is doing and get a confirmation from him that this concludes our deal and finalizes our mission.))

[Danar Gistor]

"We of the investigation team see... that explains a lot," Gistor said once the bishop had his say, "we agree that the correct action is for Padawan Jaicen and Knight Ariana Danacia to apologise. Having a public inspection would naturally be no problem as well."

[Jaicen Hedoss]

Before the earthquake, while the Lady is looking at the droid Jaicen's responds:
"Well, maybe you could try to influence the duke to have a more pro-technology point of view, it certainly helps disabled people like me and I am sure you also got some after this earthquake. If more of you are interested and I am allowed by the order, I could try to teach you on how droids are being made and how to maintain them on Unity?"

Ow, and thanks for the compliment, but I am quite sure it does not have a free will, at least, if he does have it, he is allowed to tell me".
((OOC: O god, I am not making frakking toasters, am I? :)))

Jaicen responds with a faint smile. He noticed the cleavage of the girl, but did not pay too much attention to it. Half of it was out of decency, the other half was that he thought that the girl had little bit too much interest in the droid and the flirting was too obvious. The crystal was interesting however.....

"Hmm wha..?" Jaicen says as the Lady looks to the horizon. And when the earthquake came, he was completely surprised, but happy he was in the hoverchair.
Afterwards he was taken aback a few seconds together and listened to what the bishop had to say and after his, Danar's and Ariana's words he remarked: "Sure, I will walk to them, say I am sorry and that this was apparently a misunderstanding if it helps. Is everyone allright by the way?"

He was wondering about what the Lady had to say, which was interrupted twice already. The crystal was also interesting, but Jaicen decided he would ask about it later.

After this statement and with a positive response Jaicen walks over to the group with the priests and says: "Hello, I am sorry about the ruckus one hour ago, I did not quite understand what you desired and how your religion worked in regards to ours and acted too rashly. The bishop explained everything clearly and as we speak the goods are being brought for an inspection by the bishop."

[Storyteller (Brend)]

((OOC: @Jaicen: I think you're going a bit too fast in your previous post... Or at least, you're not giving anyone the option of walking with you to the group, or giving the bishop the option of saying something there... In a tabletop their players could simply interrupt you, but in a forum this is more difficult.

Might I suggest that you end this post on the note that you walk over to the group with the intention to speak with them? That way others can join you if they want, and you take only one significant action this post ^_^))

[Jaicen Hedoss]

((OOC: You are right. But I told it in an IF function. "With a positive response", so they are allowed to interrupt or do anything else, it is specifically stated.
And, not to be rude, but you do the same .. i.e. I am not getting any moment to reply to the lady or do anything after the earthquake, while the bishop does another talk with the priest and walks back towards me.))

[Storyteller (Brend)]

((OOC: You are completely right about me doing the same. A problem is that such a dialogue takes weeks to work through, and the rest of the characters were elsewhere. I wanted to start working towards an end for this mission, and that might have been a bit overzealous of me. My apologies for that. If you want, I'll happily have Lady Vitress chat some more with Jiacen before he heads home ^_^

@Jaicen: Please refrain from putting any non-OOC content in a post with only an OOC tag... The presence of that single period at the end of your post prevents the forum from correctly expanding/collapsing this sequence of OOC posts.

@Jaicen + Ariana: The use of a conditional post is not really nice when used to "predict" the actions of others, and it only serves to speed up roleplay if the positive case is very likely. In all other cases it mostly serves to confuse, and it is a poor substitute for frequent posting.

Conditional actions also seem to make interaction between characters more difficult. Using it to speed up solo actions is usually fine (e.g., "I look for a hidden compartment, and if I find one I quickly grab the content before anyone sees it"), but using it during interaction with other characters (e.g., "If the other PC replies with this reaction:") borders on railroading or puppeteering... It also has the unfortunate side-effect of enabling accidental meta-gaming by providing knowledge of future actions (though I'm sure people try not to use this knowledge).

So please, try to limit conditional posts to solo actions, and stick to one significant action per post. Further, try to get a feeling for the things others might want to react to, and give them a moment to do so. (Needless to say, I'll try to improve this in my ST posts as well)

PS. I might just snip out the part about how conditional posts work into an OOC thread for future reference.))

[Storyteller (Brend)]

As Jaicen walks over to the group of protestors, the bishop and his bodyguard and aide walk with him. Presumably to show unity.

After Jaicen's apology, a few in the group tried to go against it by shouting "That's not an apology at all!", but quickly stop shouting when the young priest replies in a clear voice: "We accept your apology, Jedi."

Just then, the shipment of goods Ariana requested is brought in. The togruta bodyguard of the bishop opens up one of the crates, and the bishop makes a big show of carefully looking through the goods. After a while of poking through the food and medicine, he turns to the crowd.

"Hear me, devout followers of the faith!

These goods are pure and good. Even though the Jedi that brought them might not know our ways, their ignorance is no reason to denounce them and cast them out as heathens."

The bishop closes the lid himself.

"Now go and help the Jedi in their tasks here today, and I shall personally visit the cities granaries to pronounce blessings upon these goods!"

As if the bishop spoke magic words, the tension ebbs out of the mob. The two priests started their walk back to the city, while the stronger men in the mob came up to receive bags of food to cary to the city on their backs.


The bishop turns to the Jedi, a relaxed expression on his face. "I think I will stick around for the rest of the unloading. Only the gods know what comes up next, and it never hurts to be around when it does.", he states as he looks on at the carrying people, "Unless it does, of course.", he adds as he starts walking into the scientists' encampment.


((OOC: This effectively ends the mission.

Ariana still has the talk with the nomad captain coming up, but that is basically a handshake on a fulfilled promise. If people want they can stick around for some roleplay.

If the story page is finished up, I will hand out rewards.))

[Jaicen Hedoss]

Jaicen remains silent after the apology. He decided that it would be better if he lay low, the bishop would handle it all.

At the camp Jaicen tries to thank the bishop for his help. "Thanks, Sir, for defusing a situation I unintentionally created, could you tell me some more about the exact belief of these people and the reason of their initial protest?"
((OOC: You do not need to explain, since the story is over, it is just a friendly way to show the bisshop Jaicen has interest in their people))

After a few hours Jaicen also tries to talk to Lady Vitress again, continuing their conversation before the earthquake and the apology.
"What did you want to say after the earthquake, you looked with a bewildered expression, and were somewhat interrupted by your master."

"And also, If I may ask, I noticed your pendant, if I may be so blunt, I noticed you checking it right after the earthquake, is it important to you?"

[Ariana Danacia]

((OOC: I don't have the time to write the story page for this mission in the upcoming week, could somebody else start it?))

[Danar Gistor]

((OOC: I think I have some time during the weekend, I will make the story page then.))