A Hot Wind (Day 7 Early Morning Camp)

[Silas Myles Pearson]

Why was it sooo hot? Was this what a barbequed Iquana felt like? Silas was spwraled out on a open spot of grass near where they had set up camp the night before, shorts and a tshirt were his dress of choice, and his eyes looked longinly at the Temple not too far away. He wanted to go into the center chamber, it would be cool even in this heat, but the holonet signal was spotty enough without a temple in the way.

Blowing out a slow breath, he shifted fully onto his back and lifted his datapad infront of his face, time to get started before the signal was lost. Logging on to the local network he began tapping away on the screen of the datapad, maybe the Ogon trading company really did have some local holdings.

infot on Ogon holdings in dewbright? Hard difficulty? Setback from weather?: 1eP+2eA+3eD+1eS 2 successes, 3 threat

[Hatoful GM]

(would have been average; will knock off some threat)

The Ogon trade company did have some limited holdings, both in and out of Dewbright. It seemed that they were investing in the colony, but colony leaders were cautious, and so didn't allow them free purchasing reign.

[Zanja]

Zanja looked a bit silly with a thermal cloak draped over her head atop a sleeveless tunic, calf-length pants, and no shoes. Based on the yawn she smothered with a faint scowl, she hadn't been awake for long.

"Hey, Silas. I, uh, was wondering if I can borrow your datapad for a minute." Belatedly, she noticed the expression of concentration on his face; he didn't look like a kid just idly checking the local news. "What're you working on?"

[Silas Myles Pearson]

Silas' eyes drifted towards Di from his place on the grass. A thermal cloak? Maybe he should of thought about that. Still there was no turning back now.

"Oh, just looking into the local holdings of the Ogon trading company." He mused. "I was going to see if any of them were large enough to hold a couple dozen people."

"But it can wait a bit. Here." The datapad was offered towards her.

[Zanja]

"Huh." Zanja sat on the ground with a thump. Reflexively, she took the datapad, but rather than starting to enter her own query on the screen, she gave Silas a curious look. "Why Ogon? They do something to get your attention?"

[Silas Myles Pearson]

"They're slavers, and there are a lot of missing people in dewbright." He glanced towards Di, nope couldn't see into the side of her tunic.

"So I decided to check they out. They have some fancy yacht down at the space port, and are buying up some property in the area."

[Zanja]

Indeed, for reasons both sartorial and, frankly, anatomical, Zabrak sideboob was an unlikely sight on this or any other day in the near future. Check back in a couple more years, perhaps.

"Slavers? Kriff that." Zanja scowled at the datapad. "You sure? I got a note from some people who were good to me a while ago. Well, more or less. Wanting me to put a good word in for this company." Her scowl grew fiercer. "Not like the Jedi ask my opinion about that stuff, but I figured I'd at least look 'em up."

[Silas Myles Pearson]

"Well, from everything I could tell. They are pretty vague about what they do on their corporate site, but anyone with half a brian can put it together." He reached for the datapad. "If you like I can pull up the information I found out about them yesterday and you can have a look through it though."

"Could be you come to a different conclusion."

[Zanja]

"Yeah, sure." Zanja rubbed gently at the base of the horn sprouting from her right temple. "Kriff it, I was hoping this was just gonna be off-the-books gaming or something." She wasn't so dumb as to imagine the message she'd received wasn't at least a little shady, but the galaxy was full of basically victimless crimes, like underground swoop racing, or stealing from rich jerkbags. "So you think these guys are where the missing people went?"

[Silas Myles Pearson]

Silas nodded and pulled up the information for Di to peruse.

The Ogon Trade Company (OTC for schort) was not a company that worked within the bounds of Republic space. At a glance, their public information spoke about providing work opportunities and labour, but the two smart boys could quickly deduce that they were using a lot of flowery words to prettify that they were in the business of selling or buying slaves, as well as selling slave labour to those who could pay.

"It's a possibility, one I'm looking into at least A bunch of missing people and a group of slavers setting up shop in the area? It sounds a little too much to be a coincidence." He sighed. "I'd just dug up some info on the properties they had been buying when you came by."

[Zanja]

"Why bother kidnapping from a place like Dewbright when there're plenty of people out there happy to sell off their kids? Or themselves," Zanja muttered darkly. But overreach was an occasional, predictable part of criminal businesses. And totally legal ones, for that matter.

"If you made any noise about looking into them, that could be why my, uh, mutuals contacted me. I do kind of owe those guys, but... not like that. They don't know me too well if they think I want to be some kind of lobbyist for forced labor." Her scowl was somehow both thunderous and thoughtful.

"Whatcha going to do about it?"

[Silas Myles Pearson]

"Well, we haven't found any hard evidence yet, so nothing at the moment." Silas replied with a small sigh. "Honestly slavery isn't exactly illegal here either, so if we cant get them on kidnapping we got nothing."

His lips formed a slight frown. "Got any ideas of things to look into?"

[Zanja]

"It's not?" Zanja shook her head. "It's not a Republic planet, but with all the Ithorians around I guess I thought..." She shrugged.

"Well, they're worried about the Jedi looking at them too hard. So there's something they don't want to get found out. Could be illegal, could just be they know the Masters could put pressure where they don't want it." She pulled the datapad back toward herself and poked at the screen, scrolling through the dossier again. "What do they actually do on the record here? Buying? Selling? Some kind of cover business?"

[Silas Myles Pearson]

"Well, they have laws regarding how long people can work, and compensation and things like that. But not against slavery. I think they didnt even consider it?"

Her questions brought a thoughtful pause. "I didn't look at what exactly they were doing here. Though now that you mention it maybe I should of."

"Should I do some digging?"

[Zanja]

"Whatever they're doing off the books, they got to have something on the books." Zanja drummed her fingers on the edge of the datapad. "That could tell you where to look next. There's only so much anybody can find without going to look around, though." She handed the datapad back to Silas.

[Silas Myles Pearson]

"Alright." He rolled onto his belly, after taking the datapad back and be joined Di over. "I'll do what I can, you see if you can point out anything out of the ordinary."

Looking into the business deals Ogon trading is doing! Boost from Di: 1eP+2eA+1eB 4 successes, 4 advantage

[Hatoful GM]

Ogon Business deals difficulty: 2eD 3 failures


Ogon didn't actually seem to be involved in a huge number of business deals, nor especially big ones.

What they did seem to be involved in was lobbying for themselves. A lot of big goodwill charity gestures, a lot of chumming with the colony leaders. The colony leaders were playing it a bit cautious, but that's what it looked like all the same.

[Zanja]

"Huh. So they're hardly even doing anything. Just lobbying." Zanja had been leaning somewhat intrusively over Silas's screen while he worked. "Lobbying for what? Are they trying to set something up? Does it say?"

[Silas Myles Pearson]

Leaning was rude, well kinda. Nevertheless Silas reached a hand over to tickle Di's ribs. "Well, if they are lobbying maybe they are trying to legalize slavery here?"

"But I suppose I can look a little further..."

So... what is Ogon lobbying for?: 1eP+2eA+1eB 0 successes, 3 advantage

[Zanja]

"That's weird, it's almost like nobody knows what they want. Except for everyone to think they're so great." Zanja swatted Silas's hand away from her ribs with Shien-trained precision, but not uncomfortably hard. "That's definitely suspicious."