The Pazaak Tournament to Save Clan Drakonan

Written by: Ulrich Drachen and posted on: Feb 28, 2014

As this old busted freighter comes in for a landing on Nar Shadda it lurched forward with a start before slamming hard on the ground. With such a surprisingly hard landing Starkillerny was violently jarred awake almost hard enough to knock him out of his seat. After collecting himself and realizing that they were indeed on the ground he got up, stretched, and collected his belongings. Muttering to himself “no you can’t take a ship on your mission they said… we don’t have the funds for such an expense they said… hire some transport! it will be better they said…”

The junior officer that was in charge of telling me this didn’t realize how close he was from being slammed into the nearest wall before Consul Crsepe summoned me to his office to go over the plan once again. Due to the Clan’s finical difficulties many expenses and luxuries have been suspended and now it’s our job to drum up funds and improve the Clan’s income streams. The Consul read my original plan outline and almost denied it outright but due to the serious lack of funds he saw my point that even though we would have to put up a large sum of money to secure a venue and the cooperation of the Hutts we could still make almost 4 times our initial investment.

My plan was simple: I would use my contacts on Nar Shadda to broker a deal to run a Pazaak tournament at one of the bigger casino’s on the moon. I was contacted by a Hutt who would host the event in his establishment that was “world famous for its Pazaak tables”. I was highly skeptical of course but the deal offered was oddly in my favor: after expenses he suggested a 70/30 split on the profits including the bar profits. Seeing as this being our best chance I agreed with the Hutts emissary, a tall male Weequay who introduced himself as Susan. I obliviously stopped for a second and gave him this look and all he did was stare back and just say my master calls me Susan and by his decree so can you.

So here I am on Nar Shadda going to meet Susan and make final preparations for the tournament. As I am walking to the casino (no money for a cab) I’m preparing myself to meet with the “generous” Hutt willing to give such a large portion of the profits away for seemingly nothing. I did take the liberty of preparing myself for the obvious Hutt backstab on this deal. So if something goes wrong I’ll have an Ace up my sleeve.

Upon my arrival I’m greeted by the Weequay and he informs me that his master is off world and won’t actually be on planet till after the tournament has ended. “You never told me your master’s name. Which of the “glorious Hutts am I doing business with”? “My master wished to remain anonymous for now, he is intrigued by why a Sith needs to go into business with a Hutt and then arrived on Nar Shadda like a common peasant”. I must have had anger in my eyes for he continued quickly “Please, there was no insult behind my words but my master does see this as an opportunity for the Sith and himself to have a profitable future together” With that he turn and quickly moved into the casino so I could inspect the establishment. The preparations for tonight’s tournament were almost complete and it looked better than I thought. He also mentioned that word got out about the tournament and if the numbers hold we will stand to make a lot of money.

So after this inspection he left me to explore the casino and Nar Shadda a little bit and also had a room standing by for me to freshen up before tonight. I thanked him and his master and I go for a long walk stopping at a nearby park and calmed myself and mediated on this situation: I’m dealing with a Hutt that is unknown to me and being very reasonable is a trait never found in a Hutt. So far the deal is coming along quite nicely and this begins to have me on edge on how this could go wrong. After a couple of hours of calm reflection the sun was beginning to set I walked back to the casino to prepare for the event.

I dressed in a very expensive suit which apparently left for me by my mysterious host and prepared myself with the background of my alias for tonight, Rotlito Castor, A Wealthy Space station Owner from Sriluur. I was putting the final touches on my story and my outfit when I got a knock on the door from 2 beautiful Twi'leks offering to escort me downstairs and for the rest of the evening. I smiled as they came in helped me finish dressing and in about an hour we all left the room to head down to the casino.

The event was bigger than I thought it would be. Players came far and wide for apparently my mysterious Hutt host went above and beyond to get the word out. By the end of the night we in fact made a staggering 2 million credits our cut of which was 70% and subtracting the upfront expenses of 400,000.00 credits the Clan definitely will see an increase in the coffers. All thanks to my crazy ill advised plan in which was just a ruse for me to go gamble the money away. It will be so nice to see the Consul’s face when I make my mandatory donation to the Clan.

Anyway After waking up taking a shower and saying goodbye to the Twi’leks I’m met outside my room by a huge and quite foul smelling Gamorrean that was my bodyguard during the event. We never really spoke but I did notice it was watching me a little more intently then I’d like. As he began to speak I realized two things that this is where things go south and more shockingly this Gamorrean was in fact a woman. My shock continued as I finally starting hearing what she was saying “… I enjoyed watching you last night; you looked very handsome in that fancy suit. I was ensnared by your wit and charm that I was at first disappointed you left with those disgusting Twi’leks when I wished it was me...”

A combination of knowing very basic Gamorrean, utter shock at what I thought I was hearing and that fact that she was getting closer to me almost made me instinctively cut her down with my lightsaber that very instant. We were only stopped in our actions when Susan showed up and yelled at the guard and she ran away with what I thought could be crying.

I turned towards Susan and exclaimed “What the heck is going on around here!?!? This is the strangest and absolutely craziest place I have ever been!!” Yes sir I’d have to agree with you but our Master Tinkles the Hutt is not the most normal Hutt on Nar Shadda… “Damn, straight” Star exclaims as he cuts off Susan “I’d hazard a guess that …. Wait a minute… Did you say Tinkles the Hutt???” Susan swallows hard and says softly “Yes Sir I did and he wishes he was here to meet you in person but after hearing how well we both did he expects to be working with the Emperors Hammer more.”

Star shakes himself out of the stunned silence he was in “I’ll pass that along to my superiors I’m sure something could be worked out”. I turn towards the elevator to finally leave this craziness behind when Susan chimes back in “So, I’ll report back to my Master and let him know that you were very satisfied and that we will work out payment arrangements for the future tournaments that have already been arranged.”

Star stops dead in his tracks … “future tournaments??”

“Yes after last night success we have confirmed monthly tournament for the next year at least. There seemed to be a large inquiry from the patrons about future events.”

Ok will this definitely work out to be better than I thought? I was only expected to get a one shot infusion of cash from this event but now I have a full income stream for us to take advantage of. “That’s great Susan ... awesome work. Once I get back to my superiors I’ll be in touch with the payment arrangements”. As Star enters the elevator and the doors start to close Susan yells a final question... “Will you come back to oversee the tournaments”? “I can’t make promises”, and once the doors fully closed Star commented to himself … “Not on your life will I come back to this insane establishment.”

As his “transport” prepares to leave a not so very subtle Bounty Hunter walks up to Star and stops a few feet in front of him staring and with a hand near one of his blasters. “Well brother it seems I didn’t really need you at all, huh”? “No” the bounty hunter said although I enjoyed watching you get drunk and get hit on by that Gamorrean”.

Star shivers with the thought of it and stands up and point to some nearby cases. That represents our cut and it appears that we will be getting some income from the deal for a while. Cole turns and looks at the large payment and says “my fee is in there right or are you stiffing me like the last time” said with his hand on his blaster. “Fine go ahead and take your cut but remember that money is for something greater than the two of us or did you forget”?

“I didn’t forget but I still need to eat and I have a crew and a ship to keep running too you know”. The Captain of the flying trash heap motioned to Star to inform him that the cargo has been loaded and that they are ready to leave. Star sighing in relief to put an end to this crazy experience turns to board the ship says to his brother “Yes I know maybe one day we will get back what is ours”. Cole retorts “yeah maybe and maybe one day you’ll stop living in a hole in the ground and actually travel freely in a real ship”, laughing at Star.“My dear brother if you could travel so freely then why don’t you go visit your own son”? and with that the Airlock closes tight and Cole is left glaring at the ship as the engines roar to life and starts lifting towards the sky.

After arriving back to the Dark Hall Star enters the Consul’s office followed by many lockboxes filled with profit for Clan Drakonan. “Sir you will be please to know that not only did my plan worked and as you can see the profits were good”. Crsepe sat their staring at the boxes in amazement “Before I say good job how profitable was this plan of yours”? “Well after expenses I bring before you a tidy sum of 700,000.00 credit of pure profits and you’ll be happy to know Tinkles the Hutt will be running more tournaments for us as well. So there will be more profit to come. Assuming you approve of continuing the business arrangement”.

Crsepe stands up obliviously angry and yells “Tinkles the Hutt?!? See I knew it you made this all up and you just gambled with our money and got extremely luck at the tables didn’t you? There is no such Hutt and yet again you recklessly endanger the Clan with your behavior. What would have happen if you lost all of the Clans Money?!? Time and time again you pull stunts like this…”

At that moment Crsepe’s intercom goes off and the voice on the other end being very confused communications officer informs Crsepe that a Tinkles the Hutt is on the holo wishes to discuss future business arrangements. Crsepe stares at Star and grumbles if this is part of a sick joke I’ll have you wishing you’d never joined the Clan”. “I assure you Sir, I am not making this up and trust me I was there and I still don’t believe what happened”.

About 30 mins later Star left Crsepe’s office in a confused and shocked state mumbling “my god he is real and even if I had years to make him up in my head I’d never would have come up with this”.

Star reaches for his com opens a channel “Hey Zeph … you around?” Zephon responds “Yea a little busy but what’s up?” “Well sir when you’re done meet me in the cantina I have a story for you that you just won’t believe” “Oh really?? Well I’ll be there in about an hour then”. With that Star clicks off the comm. And slowly walks to the cantina when his comm.

Comes alive again and Crsepe’s voice comes out to loud and too clear to not mistake what he says next “Star for the great job you did I have contact Tinkles the Hutt and informed him that you will be his primary contact and that you WILL go back to oversee the future tournaments to ensure we get our cut of the profits”. Without even being able to utter a response the comm. goes off with the sound of Crsepe laughing ….

Star picks up the pace and hurries to the cantina and begins to hope for a Jedi invasion to end his misery.