Pitr Illya, noted con-man and smooth-talker, has assembled a team of experts to perform a daring heist on board the Balmorran Star, a luxury cruise starliner. Obtain the ancient Astrolabe of Ban-Du that is up for auction and replace it with a forgery. Governor Venetari is the owner of both the Astrolabe and the Balmorran Star, and will need to be impersonated in order to get past his personal vault security measures.

• Kat'toni, "The Great Zeeastro"
• Shaal Bluum
• Rhee Rhyanne
• Yan
• B1-LD

Pitr explains the plan to the group:

1. Infiltrate the Balmorran Star:

• I have acquired tickets for myself, Rhee Rhyanne (alias: famous biographer/writer “Kitty Kel'lee”)
• Shaal (initial alias: he is replacing human mechanic employee “Karl Rayner”), who will enter via the employees' security entrance, and bring along B1-LD as a “personal project”
• “The Great Zeeastro” has been hired as a magical act, and will have to perform a show each evening for the patrons.
• The Balmorran Star was at full occupancy, and Yan was unable to get a ticket. She will have to find a way in herself, but that shouldn't be a problem with her skillset. One option may be hiding in Zeeastro's suitcase.

2. Gather Intel/Prep

• Learn Venetari's personality, voice, habits, and schedule. Rhee will try to interview him, and Shaal should shadow him as much as possible using multiple faces.
• Yan will need to crawl through the cooling ducts that run behind the Star's security station and create a backdoor access point so B1-LD can slice in and monitor
• The auction will provide an opportunity to gather intel about security - the Astrolabe will be on display in a separate conference room during the auction. The goal is to leave no suspicion about the theft, so do not steal the Astrolabe until after the auction!
• Steal Venetari's keycard - may require infiltration into his private quarters
• Obtain an iris scan - the best chance to do it without suspicion is at the magic show. Rhee should convince him to attend the show and be a volunteer, if possible.

3. Steal the Astrolabe

• As Venetari's personal Vault is the most secure location on the ship, we assume that it will remain for the rest of the voyage. Security begins with voice recognition to enter the ante-room. There is a single guard watching over the Vault Door, and it requires an iris scanner and the keycard.
• B1-LD must cover up any security footage and leave no trace of the theft.

Simple. Easy-peasy. You are all skilled enough to improvise should anything not go according to plan. I will oversee the operation and coordinate through the comms. I anticipate being a red herring for Varentari's security forces.

This artifact is extremely valuable to our employer, and we will receive 1.2M credits upon delivery, to be split equally among us.

The party barely succeeded at stealing an imitation of “The Astrolabe of Be-Du”, triggering alarms and causing a general kerfuffle. The team managed to evade capture, and are rocketing off to a safe house (although several members smell like garbage - it was a handy but smelly escape route).

• Shaal performed several excellent imitations (including a sketchy Venetari - the voice was a bit off), unplugged poor R0-ZY and was nearly eaten by strange insectoid creatures (pets? guard animals?). The escape pod is (sadly) more comfortable than his accommodations on the Balmorran Star, and probably smells better, too. At least it's not on fire…

• Bone's excellent slicing skillz served him well, going head-to-head with a very experienced Sys-op admin and pwn'd the Balmorran Star's security. Along the way he seriously oiled himself, trashed at least one room, fried 2 datapads and factory-reset the Sys-Ops admin's terminal.

• Yan contorted her way through rodent-infested vents, was imprisoned, tried to disembowel Shaal, was nearly exposed to the vacuum of space and had a close-up encounter with a purple gungan's disruptor pistol. Unfortunately the custom lockpicks she crafted out of a rodent's bones broke - they would have made an excellent souvenir.

• “Kitty” barely managed to keep her cover around Venetari (an impressive feat to not get caught by him) and got his official photo, got “hypnotized” well enough to convince the governor to join her on stage, and saved Shaal's bacon during the theft of the Astrolabe by discovering the garbage chute. She'll be hitting the refresher as soon as the escape pods reach civilization. Unfortunately, Kitty never had the chance to enjoy the high-class auction at the Star's fancy 5-Star Steakhouse - maybe next time…

• “The Great Zeeastro” became temporarily famous, started a riot, framed Stanley Jiggles for several thefts, and impersonated a Rodent of Unusual Size. He also managed to snag a very expensive holo-recorder - bonus loot!

Unbenownst to all except Pitr, their secret employer was Venetari himself, hoping to uncover the flaws in his security system. (He only knew that Pitr was involved, not the rest of the team - hence Pitr generally staying out of direct action to avoid blowing their cover).

The governor was hoping to have a harder time catching the intruders, but apart from some temporary disruption to security, it turned out well for him. The auction the next evening proceeded without a hitch, and made a handsome profit on the real Astrolabe, selling it to a team of adventurers led by Garner Rel & Jek Tassom.

Pitr thoroughly enjoyed the rest of the cruise… the easiest heist he's ever ran.