Sunday, November 11, 2018

The Garden



Nestled among the sewer tunnels beneath Coronet City on Corellia is this oasis of life—that is, as long as one considers mushrooms and other types of fungus to represent life. Given how harsh life in the city's underside can be, many of the locals are willing to take whatever kind of fresh foodstuffs they can get. That is why the Sullustan gardener Rhea Eluko has built her underground garden, a place that is now regarded as neutral territory where anyone who lives in the tunnels can come to obtain food. 

The garden is built in a flooded area that creates a pool of relatively fresh water. It can be accessed from either end, where entry tunnels (1) open onto narrow platforms of rock. Much of the garden is filled with water (2), which ranges in depth from two meters at the sides to twenty meters in the middle. In the center of it all is a broader platform (3) on which Rhea cultivates her mushrooms. There is also a small cave in which she resides (4), a dry space where she lays out her bedroll and keeps those items that must be protected from the ever-present moisture.

Rhea Eluko
Type: Sullustan Trader

DEXTERITY 2D+1
KNOWLEDGE 2D+2
Streetwise 4D+2
Survival 4D+2
MECHANICAL 4D+1
PERCEPTION 3D
Bargain 5D
STRENGTH 2D
TECHNICAL 3D+2
First Aid 4D+2

Special Abilities:
Enhanced senses: See the core rulebook for details.
Location sense: See the core rulebook for details.
Force Points: 1
Character Points: 5
Move: 10
Equipment: Datapad, comlink, blaster pistol (4D), crash survival kit
Rhea Eluko
Brawn 2 Agility 3 Intellect 2
Cunning 1 Willpower 2 Presence 2

Soak: 2 Wound Threshold: 12
Strain Threshold: 12 M/R Defense: 0 / 0

Skills: Astrogation 1, Charm 1, Deception 1, Lore 1, Medicine 1, Negotiation 2, Perception 1, Streetwise 2, Survival 2, Underworld 1, Vigilance 1

Talents: Grit, Know Somebody, Skilled Jockey, Smooth Talker, Wheel and Deal

Abilities: One free rank in Astrogation; one free rank in Skilled Jockey

Equipment: Datapad, comlink, blaster pistol (Ranged (Light); Damage 6; Critical 3; Range [Medium]; Stun setting), crash survival kit.
Rhea seems to be the embodiment of the phrase “down to earth;” the Sullustan enjoys little more than tending her garden, harvesting its fruits, and sharing them with others who live in Coronet City's underside. While that is true, though, few would suspect that she lives a much more complicated life. Eluko was once a smuggler who worked for the crimelord Slarr the Hutt; she even captained a Ghtroc 720 freighter, the Reeho. She was close to paying off the debt that she owed on the vessel when the Hutt asked her to make a pick-up at Coronet City. She was shocked to learn that her “cargo” would be slaves, local urchins who'd become embroiled in lives of crime and who, for various reasons, were being sold into servitude. Finding that she'd been pushed to her ethical limit, Rhea waited until they were all aboard, and then took off from her landing platform. Then she carefully and capably crashed her ship. The weather at the time was stormy, which provided something of an excuse. Once the Reeho was in the water, the Sullustan helped the would-be slaves escape from their bonds and then make the short swim back to land, and to freedom. Of course, life in the Correlian undercity is no easy thing, and so Rhea created the Garden in order to help provide for the urchins that she'd rescued. She also helped buy passage off of Corellia for each of the younglings, even though it took considerable time and effort to do so. Now she goes about her new business, content to live a simple but relatively peaceful life—and one free from guilt. Whether or not she would take further action against those who exploit younglings for criminal purposes remains to be seen.