Log:The One That Got Away

The One That Got Away

OOC Date: October 29, 2022
Location: The Grot, Ko Hentota
Participants: Pilha Aino (GM), Gar Massey, Roktuka, Aurora, Ruur, Dalrion, Domino Graystorm

...< The Grot - Undercity - Ko Hentota District, Nar Shaddaa >................ This well known spot in the Uncercity is locally referred to as 'The Grot' and legend has it that what started out as a puddle has become a pretty sizable pond sustained by a consistent stream from upper levels. Is it runoff? Industrial waste? No one that knows the answer is telling, but the water is perpetually murky and has an offensive smell on the best of days. The wastewater pond is surrounded by a shore of trash that has been trampled flat over the years, and a few ramshackle docks that provide questionable protection from the water below. The popularity of the spot with locals is based solely on the fact that occasionally valuables are uncovered in the murky depths, leading some to fish the spot, while other braver souls enter the waters. Sometimes they even return. ..............................................................................

    <=Contents=>                                    <=Exits=>                

+Dalrion (S1 Battle Armor) <Out> Undercity Fishing (The Grot)

The deep gloom of Nar Shaddaa's undercity. The area is quiet, the traffic in the skies above a distant low rumble. The filthy denizens of the undercity have lit fires here and there to keep the darkness at bay. The sputtering flames cast strange shadows and the acrid smoke adds to the gloom. Strange figures can be seen in silhouette, before vanishing again. Occasionally rustling can be heard as rodents or worse scutter through the trodden down rubbish at the shore. The surface of the lake is calm, with more milky green mist hanging above it in sickly wisps. Every now and again a gentle splash can be heard. Pilha Aino stands by the shore of the lake, she's made it known in the bars and clubs of Nar Shaddaa that she's running a fishing competition.

Aurora stands at the end of the dock, staring down into the water with a stick in hand. She swirls the end of the stick around in the water for a moment, testing the polluted waters. "Is there really anything living in this water?" she wonders aloud. Shrugging it off, she lets go of the stick and picks up a fishing rod. It had been a while since she had done any fishing, but she was somewhat familiar with it. Wouldn't be much of an adventurer if she couldn't fish! She casts her line far out toward the middle of the pond and watches the bobber intently as it comes to rest on the surface of the water, curious to see whether or not anything would even bite!

Dalrion trudges through the grime and sludge of the undercity, tossing a rock from hand to hand and whistling softly to himself. His smile was bright, unusual for the area they were in. The smell, the dourness.. well the undercity had a way of grinding people down. but not Dalrion! there he was, seemingly excited as he approached. "is this the phishing contest?!" he paused and looked around, "Wait a moment.. where are the harpoons?" he broke into a laugh, grinning at those here. "Im dalrion! nice to meet you all! are we just jumping in?"

Pilha shrugs and turns to survey the dark water. It's hard to see the full extent of the lake. A strange watery 'plop' can be heard as if a fish has jumped out of the polluted water and splashed back down. "Sounds like it," the human woman says. She has a strange accent, part Nar Shaddaa, part Corellian. She bends down, picks up a fishing rod. The slicer is no survivalist, so she just it hauls back and flicks it forwards. Her line flies out, the spinner making a quiet rattling noise as it does so, then hits the water with a splash.

Gar has approached with his box of fishing gear. He just walks to a spot and glances around. Yup, definitely not up to anything there. He does something, then sits back as his line reels out. Yup, nobody pay any attention to the Duros in the corner.

Roktuka makes his way up to the fishing area, looking around, and then into the water somewhat skeptically. Then he's stepping up to check the fishing equipment, at least it's all provided. "A deep murring grunt emits, as he gets his fishing rod set up, having a bit of a time with it at first. But he's well-motivated at least. "I will catch all the fish." He mutters, tail swishing as he casts.

A few minutes pass. The fishers sit and wait in silence for a bite. Gar's rod twinges first, dipping toward the lake strongly as the float bobs around before swimming stongly away. Then Pilha's rod twitches, less strongly than Gar's. Aurora's rod twitches next and the float begins to move gently away. Dalrions' rod twitches and pulls down. The finally Roktuka's rod twitches.

Aurora stared at her bobber intently, her attention focused solely on it. Feeling the twitch of the rod in her hand and seeing the bobber move she pulls back hard to make sure her hook is stuck firmly in whatever it was she had hooked. "I got something!" she calls out excitedly. Once firmly hooked at the end of the line she starts reeling it in as hard as she can, eager to see what might be in this unusual pond."

Dalrion cast his line in and whistled softly to himself as he waited. "This is a lot more relaxing than people give it credit for! sure you can use scanners and all manner of tech to do this better but... well there is a nice bit of random chance with this!" he smiled brightly, watching the others who seemed to know better than him what they were doing, and moved to mimic. As the rods began to move from nibbles he perked up. "Oh You got one! and you too! OH!! I GOT ONE!!" he grabbed the rod and gave it a YANK! "COME TO DADDY!"

Pilha grins at Dalrion and Aurora but makes no sound. Suddenly, her rod twitches. She grabs it and leans backwards slightly as she grabs her rod and begins to wind it in. She tussles, letting the float out, and winding it in several times to tire out whatever she has caught.

Gar's line spins and he grabs it. "Oh child!" he says, reeling it in as the pole bends. He makes it look so easy! Lanky guy must be wiry! He pours himself into making all the right movements until he lifts the fish from the water. "I got one!" he says, sounding surprised he caught anything at all, let alone the massive beast dangling from his hook.

Roktuka seems very, very attentive, probably a bit too much. He's bent forward, watching the string.. his tail slowly swishing back and forth behind him, ears folded back just a little.. He looks like he might just pounce right into the water at the mere glimpse of a fish.. and then it twitches, and he starts pulling on the rod, reeling in, pulling, snarling as he does so. "I'm gonna eat you little fishy!"

Ah, the results. Pilha pulls up a tiddler, a thin silver fish. Gar catches a multi-legged monstrosity that oozes slime. Aurora catches a pale green fish with a transparent head. Dalrion catches an eel with a row of zipping bioluminescence down its sides. Roktuka catches a large fish with a mouthful of needle-like teeth.

Aurora was reeling in hard, pulling her rod this way and that to try to keep the fish from getting away from her. Then, finally, it gets within reach and she grabs at her line as she pulls it up out of the water to hoist her catch high. "Alright! I caught..." She stares at the fish for a moment before pulling it close for a better look. "Um... something. Looks kinda weird. Guess its more normal than I thought it'd be, aside from the head..." After a moment she shrugs and drops the fish on the dock next to her. She gives a curious glance toward the other fishers, wondering what they had fished up themselves, before casting her line out into the pond again.

Dalrion yanks the pole up, a triumphant laugh bubbling forth. Then his victory yell turned a bit panicked. "AHH! What the frak is that! oh shit its trying to eat my arm!!" he grabbed a rock and THUNKED the side of the eel repeatedly with it. he looked around and held up the limp glowing eel. "Well.. Its big! and heavy! and honestly really pretty when its not trying to eat you." a bright smile spread over his face. "This is amazing!" he tossed it onto the dock. "Next one will be bigger!"

Pilha winds her line in and sees the rather unimpressive tiddler on the end. The little fish wriggles, glinting dully in the gloom. Pilha sighs as she takes hold of the fish gently and unhooks the hook from its gill then carefully put it back in the greasy dark water. "Off you go," she tells the little fish as it swims off with a flick of its silver tail. She picks her rod back up and casts out again.

Gar pulls the multi-legged thing oozing mucus over to his catches bucket and sets it inside. Thankfully, he brought the big bucket. However, when there's a round two, his jaw muscles tighten. No problem. It's fine. Just...use some bait and try again. Bait...right...bait you didn't bring because you thought you thought this was a one-round competition. Way to read the flier, genius. Gar takes a slow, deep breath and decides to improvise. He reaches into the water he's placed his catch in and breaks off one of its legs. It doesn't seem that phased by that, just happy to be out of the Nar Shaddaa water. He impales the leg on his hook and casts it out. He doesn't look quite so confident this time around. At least the cast was good...

Ruur arrives from Undercity. Ruur has arrived.

Roktuka gets a large, aggressive fish! "Nice teeth." He huffs in a gruff mrrling sound, tossing the fish into a nearby bucket, licking his chops as he sets the line up for a new cast. He glances along the other row of fishers though, eyeing up the Ruur Cedid had found himself on Nar Shaddaa searching for something specific. He had spent the better part of a few days looking in all the wrong places. He was a well trained scout, had a good name among people in the Military and Security trade... but this one person, thing... he was tracking was elusive. Elsewhere and beyond his abilities currently. They hid their tracks well. Hunger set in. He didn't want to spend his limited fund frivolously. Word of the fishing competition down in the Grote interested him. So he lumbered down there, quietly as he could. Glowing red eyes looked about at the homeless and their fires. It had been some time since he had seen such suffering. Yet this was Nar Shaddaa... it was to be expected. And somehow, some of them liked living this way. He ambled up to the shore of the polluted body of water, fashioned himself a rod made from some loose steel laying around and rope. Sharpened a bit of a hook at the end, then cast the line with a flick of the wrist. It whipped lightly in the air but landed with a splash not too far away from him. Silenlty he glared around at the others here, studying them carefully.

Dalrion's float bobs first then is pulled sharply down, quickly followed by Gar whose float is sharply tugged several times. Roktuka's float is dragged quickly away. Pilha's rod twitches slightly, as does Aurora and Ruur's rods.

Gar is surprised when his bobber is taken so quickly. He struggles to bring it in, pulling and tugging and being much less graceful than the first time.

Aurora's eyes widen a bit as she sees the eel Dalrion had caught and the Zeltron winces when he hits the thing with a rock. "Eheh, well, you definitely caught something interesting-looking!" she notes to him, flashing a small grin. Roktuka's comment on his catch gets a curious glance from Aurora as she shifts glances between him and the fish. "Um... sure? I don't know if I'd want-oh!" Aurora's comment is cut off as her attention is drawn to the movement from her rod. She pulls back hard on her line to try to hook the fish... and pulls back an empty line. She rubs the back of her neck sheepishly. "Um... oops..."

Dalrion gives a grin to Aurora, "right?! its amazing just.. a bit vicious!" he gives a laugh, rebaits the hook and tosses it in. Its a good throw, landing far out there. he gives it a few jiggles, trying to entice the fishy's. Then the thing is pulled sharply down. his eyes flew open, "oh! something has this thing as it angry!"

Roktuka huffs. "I mean what's the point if we're not going to eat them, that's what we're here for right?" Asks Roktuka, but his violet, feline eyes are pretty much locked on his line and bobber, watching it take off he fights with it for a while, but he seems to have the greater strength than whatever he has caught. The hulking Lupin stuck the pole between a gathering of debris and found himself a discarded crate to perch atop of as he waited for the the line to Snag. Eventually it did. It was light though, and he pulled it in and out of the dark waters. As it flipped around on the ground, the Shistavenen studied it. He glanced to Rok and his larger fish, then back to his little one. His stomach growled.

Pilha watches as Dalrion and Aurora fail to wind their fish in. She grits her teeth and winds her reel in, managing with some effort and struggle on both hers and the fish's part to haul it in.

Pilha finally pulls her fish in, a spotted brown fish with a iridescent belly.

Gar pulls a whopper from the water. He sounds just as surprised as he pulls the biggest (and only) 'fish' he's ever caught from the water. Its a weird thing, for sure. The thing is built like a caterpillar, with legs all up and down its sides, little graspy hands at the ends. It has two heads, one of which is slowly swallowing more and more of his line, the other is grasping at him with tentacle-tongues. The top of it is matted fur that looks like seaweed and detritus. Bottom feeder, sure, but an honest catch! "I caught one!" he says. He looks incredibly proud of it. "Hey, buddy," he says right before the creature lunges forward and that sucker mouth's half-dozen tentacle tongues wrap around his head. "G'ah!" he yelps. He pulls away easily, no tooth marks on him. No teeth in it, apparently.

He drops the critter and line into the bucket with the other...thing...he 'caught' and puts the lid on. He gestures to Pilha. "Hey, Pilha!" he says. "Did you see me? I caught a fish!" He realizes, "I caught TWO fish!" though a little disingenuous in that one. Also, neither of them are technically fish.

Roktuka manages to haul out a very big fish this time! Bigger than the last one too! The feline's eyes go wide and his maw opens slowly, baring large, sharp fangs at the heavy struggling creature. He resists the urge to bite into it, instead turning to set it in the bucket. This is a rather large fish, it actually looks like it has a 'pot belly' as a matter of fact, and is very wide in the middle. As though to make up for this, it's tail fins are very large as well compared to the rest of him, and they look almost like some sort of underwater plantlife instead of actual fins, like kelp. The front of this fish is not terribly hydrodynamic, and it has an array of teeth that stick out even when it's mouth is closed, all pointing in different directions. The color looks brown at first but in the light it has a nice coppery shine to it, which is nice, aside from all the warts and other bumps all over it's scaly form.

Ruur glances towards Pilha and he fish, glowing red eyes staring across the shore in the darkened undercity. Then he looks towards Gar and the two odd 'fish' he caught. Kneeling down, his attention returns to his own fish. It's stopped flipping about now, properly starved of its oxygen. The Shistavenen narrows his brows, realizing the torture he must have caused the creature by not killing it right away. He picked it up and held it in clawed hands. It was slimy, not just from the oils and other things in the waters. It was naturally so. There was a glowing angler atop of it, bio luminescent. The teeth were as sharp as his. However, the most interesting thing were the seven pair of eyes arranged in an unsymmetrical pattern. Beady little buttons. Why would a fish need that many eyes? The fins were sharp, several on the top. They could easily cut a finger. When he moved it around in what little light there was, the scales seemed to shimmer with the colors of the rainbow.

Gar Massey heads into Undercity through the Out exit. Gar Massey has left.

The fishers discuss and confer for a few minutes, before deciding that Ruur fished the most interesting fish. The lake is quiet, lit dimly by the flickering lights of the rubbish fires. Mist curls damply over the surface of the water as the ripples caused by the fishing weaken and vanish. Ruur, Aurora and Roktuka hear low growls. They can't tell exactly wear the animals are, but they're there and they don't sound friendly.

Rabid Massif 2, a manging skinny looking version of the fourlegged, hump-backed carnivore, jumps out of the mist and lunges at Dalrion with its yellowing teeth bared, blasting him with its foul breath.

Domino arrives from Undercity. Domino has arrived.

Ruur's own Lupin ears perk up at the sound of growling. Glowing red eyes yurn in the direction of the noise and his hair stands up on end. Suddenly one mastiff jumps out and attacks Dal. The Shistavenen turns and attempt to move in to help but is blocked by another mastiff. Rurr lets out a growl and slices rapidly at the beast with a short blade he draws from across his lower back.

The massif that lunged at Dalrion is quickly dispatched by Ruur with a slice to its belly as it jumps, cutting through its mottled skin and opening up its guts. It howls, then lands on the floor and skids, steaming gently from the pile of guts that spill from its opened belly. The second massif snarls and lunges at Ruur with its mouth open, but misses.

Dalrion gives a shout of surprise. "oh frag it! where did these comes from!" he jumps back, hand flying to his holster to draw his gone. "Oh no you dont! those are our fish and that is my leg you are trying to bite!!" he looks to the one that attacked Ruur after the first one got dropped already. "Eat blaster Slimo!"

Dalrion hits the massif squarely in the flank, burning a huge hole in it. The animal, foaming red from the mouth, collapses and whines as it struggles and finally goes still.

Pilha quickly draws and brings her blaster to bear as massifs appear seemingly out of nowhere. Several are dispatched quickly around her. Silent, she brings her blaster up, aims at the final massif and fires.

Hearing the growling as the massifs approach, Aurora quickly goes for one of her pistols. By the time she's bringing it to bear the beasts have already made their move and the others present have replied in kind, felling two of the creatures. "Hey! I would have -gladly- given you my fish if that's what you wanted!" the Zeltron woman calls out after the beasts before firing a quick burst of shots at the remaining massif.

Domino is inexplicably down in the cesspits of Nar for some reason and lured by the noise. Her helmet unclipped from her belt and tugged on she sashays on into the Grotto and looks around, "This is a strange place to hold a party, Gizka Gary. Pilha, doll, is that you?" a hand eases her pistol as she gets her bearings.

Having felled the Massif that stood in the way of him and the one Del had been attacked by, Ruur sees his fishing compatriot is able to hold his own and dispatch the beast on his own. With a snarl, the Lupin crouches with blade at his side and turns towards the final Massif in the pack.

In an animalistic way, the two beasts growl and stock each other at a distance. Until Ruur leaps towards the less sentient beast and drives his blade deep into its body. HE twists the blade, trying to end the animal's life as quickly as possible.

The small group stand amid the slashed and burned bodies of three massifs and 7 or so dead fish in various weird and wonderful shapes. The octopus-like and caterpilla-like fish of Gar's have managed to crawl back into the lake at least. Pilha holsters her blaster and flicks the safety on. She lets a small sigh out, glancing at Ruur and Roktuka. "I owe you guys some money," she states simply. She glances at the dead animals, Domino, and the rest of the crew. "Drink?" she suggests to them.

Dalrion watches as the last dog is dropped and gives a sigh. he breaks into a smile once the danger is past. "Well! that might be the most exciting fishing i've ever partaken in! i think i owe you ALL a drink for saving my ass from those nasty teeth!" he looks over and grins to Domino, "Domino! well welcome to the party! i caught some fish, shot an animal.. great time!"

As suddenly as they had arrived, all three of the beasts were down. She looks around incase there were more lurking nearby before shrugging and putting her pistol away. "So uh... yeah... that happened." She mumbles, scratching at the side of her head before turning to the others. "Well anyway! That was fun! Definitely didn't expect there to be a fishing spot here on Nar Shaddaa."

Ruur is silent for a long moment, pulling out a rag from his pocket and using it to clean the blood of the Massif's off his blade. He glances over his shoulder back at Pilha and the others before he crouches before the felled beast and starts to... field dress it. "I don't drink..." His voice finally rumbles in a low roar, almost as if two deep voices were layered atop each other. "Thank you for the offer." He would take the money though. Because if you're hunting for food in the sewer, you clearly needed it.

Pilha glances at Aurora, grinning faintly. "Never a dull moment, huh? If it's not sandboarding it's cave-shrines..." she says to the other woman then nudges a fish, brown with an iridescent belly, on the floor near her boot. "To see what we'd find," she explains to Domino simply. The woman sighs and begins to head off. "Well, I'm going to the Blue Pulse. See you there. Or not." she nods to Ruur as she passes him.