Allie

Among the regulars at the Ox & Carriage, Savannah tends to stand out from the crowd. Hailing from Venus, Savannah tends to prefer her home planet's traditional garb to the zips and straps of modern Solar fashion. It suits her just fine, though, given her profession as a space rancher and her very cranky old-fashioned personality. Things used to be so much simpler before the Terraforming Incident, before every fool-hearted youngster chased their dreams into a lonesome death in space. But that's where the people are now, they're in space, so Savannah is in space too. She doesn't mind the people at the Ox & Carriage. They're still foolish, but they're good company.

• Savannah is a regular source of leads on potential salvage jobs.
• Savannah can be hired to help manage livestock and other animal-related jobs.

The creation of Titan Garden helped open up a whole new frontier for the people of the Sol system. As a hub colony it serves as a stepping stone between many species' home planets and the untamed wild of Saturn's many, many moons, allowing young homesteaders to venture forth and try to live off lands largely untouched by sentient lifeforms. It's a peaceful life when it works, but when it doesn't it really really doesn't. Savannah knows a lot of the former cases and a fair few of the latter cases; being a rancher, her hardy Venusian livestock is often purchased by homesteaders looking to establish a solid source of food and resources. Venusian cattle is adapted to highly acidic environments, they're tough animals with thick hides so they tend to survive integration into new climates surprisingly well. Venusian livestock gives somewhat sour milk but the wool they produce can be very thick and warm, it's a staple of traditional Venusian garments designed to keep the acid rain off but it can keep an Inner Belt humanoid nice and toasty on a cold Saturnian night as well.

Being that Savannah works with a lot of homesteaders she passes by Titan often on her travels between Venus and Saturn. She likes to check in on her clients now and then, to make sure they're doing alright and to look after the livestock she entrusted to their care. She genuinely cares for her animals and will not suffer fools with no plans or survival skills who come to her looking to start a doomed farm on Albiorix or something, but that's the thing about fools, they can sometimes be very convincing in passing themselves off as knowledgeable and trustworthy, making the right noises and pushing the right buttons to pass through the filter screen. Savannah generally works with successful homesteaders, but she occasionally finds her fools in the skeletal remains of a failed homestead she flew in to check up on. They could have built a life on their own planet, she'd say, they could have been in earshot of help. These poor kids want to chase their dreams and find a lonesome death in space- she'd entrusted her animals to them, to sustain them, but they failed their livestock, and she feels by extension that she did as well. The one failed homestead in one hundred she had a hand in stocking is a big reason the old lady is as cranky and untrusting as she is.

Rocky always has a room available for Savannah at the Ox & Carriage, and when she comes through she always spends the night. She tends to keep to herself, sitting at a corner table and never really participating in the bursts of jovial celebration that erupt of the pub, preferring to observe quietly instead. She's not repellant to conversation but she doesn't actively seek it either. Clayton and Keera have both tried to strike up a conversation with her but she's got few words to spare for the grim-humored Callistan or the energetic Terran. Viola has also had a hard time breaking the ice with Savannah, she doesn't resonate with the highfalutin Venusian. She likes Dr. Lin, the two will often share a drink together and just not say a word, Savannah seems to appreciate the gesture of quiet he offers her.

Savannah recognizes Red Raven and Timberwolf for what they do, cleaning up the debris left by fool-hearted kids chasing the stars. When she sees the crews at the Ox & Carriage she will often step over to one or the other- she doesn't seem to discriminate- and tell them about the failed homesteads she's found, or the wrecked ships adrift enroute to the isolated little worlds. She'll pass word along and then continue on her way, never lingering for conversation. It's grim business finding the frayed end of someone's lifeline, it's best to let the crows and dogs come by and pick it clean. In this way whatever is left can return to the great cycle of life in space, and perhaps help someone else's line extend further along its own journey. Let nature run its course and do what you can for the next ones. That's Savannah's way.

A regular fixture at the bar, Kessler is a Callistan starfarer who loves to stop in at the Ox & Carriage whenever he's on Titan. Kessler is in the long-haul shipping business, piloting a small cargo vessel not unlike the Grand Elk. He prefers to keep as small a crew as possible, and generally only flies with crewmates he trusts. Kessler stands eye-to-eye with Rocky, cutting an imposing figure with his thick mane of Callistan quills, but if you take the time to get to know him you'll find he's a very chill and gentle person. He has two kids- two little girls- and if you share a drink and get to know him he will almost certainly show you holographs of them. He'll tell you what their interests are, how they're doing in school, he'll speak proudly about the time they trounced a bully- when you look at his holographs you will see what a young Callistan looks like, as they are little bundles of big quills waiting to be grown into with big gold eyes looking up at you, it's really quite adorable. Being a trucker means he doesn't get to see them as often as he'd like, and they are his motivation to get a job done quick so he can head back to Callisto and see his girls.

• Kessler can be hired as a low-profile transportation option, letting you ride along in his cargo vessel, but only if your stop is somewhere along his route.
• Kessler offers jobs on his crew but only after you have built sufficient trust with him.

Part of the reason Kessler stops in at the Ox & Carriage so often is because of Rocky. The mining Android loves a good story, and Kessler picks up his fair share of tales on his journeys, both from his own encounters on the Sol system's trade routes and secondhand stories he hears from other starfarers at the many little pit stops in space, like Gus's Galaxy Grill just outside Caelus's orbit- avoid the house special, he'll tell you, just trust him on that. Being as well-traveled as he is, Kessler has a lot of friends in low places in all corners of the system, so if he likes you and you mention you need something he can pass word along to one of his friends and tell you, go see so-and-so out in some hole in the wall, they'll take care of you, and if you take him up on his word you'll find he was right.

Since Kessler runs a slim crew he likes to handle all his maintenance preventatively while he's station-side prepping for the next leg of his run. When he's flying into Titan Garden he likes to radio ahead to Red Raven and see if they've got a spot open in their back lot for some maintenance. He'd met the crew, as you'd expect, when he blew out an engine warp-skipping past Saturn and he needed a tow and a repair job. Titan Dispatch sent out Red Raven and the Jackrabbit II latched on and towed Kessler to safety. The crew respected his time and expedited a service job so he can get flying again, and Kessler appreciated the gesture and not having to bum around Titan Garden waiting for his ship to get fixed so he can do his job and go see his girls again. Since then Kessler has made Red Raven a regular pit stop on his journeys, getting Lydia to calibrate his warp engines, hitting up Clover to make sure his computer systems are operating correctly, requesting an astronav diagnostic from Haley and asking Amy to look over his ship for early signs of wear or breakdown. While they work he likes to share a word with Keera, speaking his native tongue with a fellow Callistan and sharing news from back home. He'll even get a check-up from Dr. Lin to make sure he's in good shape himself. He treats the crew like he's visiting extended family, and he pays above asking price for their time and is always warmly received, with everyone asking to see the latest holographs.

When he spots the Red Raven crew coming into the Ox & Carriage after a long day's work Kessler will excuse himself from propping up the bar and step over to come sit with them. He always believes in keeping up with the people earn his trust, because more often than not they're the ones who will help him safely along his way. With their help he can get his job done sooner, and all the sooner he can make his way back to Callisto and see those two bouncing bundles of quills he loves so dearly.

Bi Feng is a regular presence at the Ox & Carriage. A fellow Android, Bi Feng serves as Rocky's bouncer, ensuring the rowdy regulars don't overstep and wreck up the place. A reserved and stoic personality, Bi Feng is a master of the Illusion Fist style of martial arts and is an extremely capable fighter. "My name is Bi Feng, take it as a warning". He will often address a pubgoer before intervening to subdue and eject them, and regulars generally know to take the hint and avoid the storm brewing in their future. Newcomers, overserved by a story-loving bartender, don't often take a hologram as a serious threat and very quickly learn a new lesson in their travels.

• Bi Feng can be hired for jobs, but only if the cause is sufficiently noble.
• Bi Feng accepts challenges to his Illusion Fist style from starfarers who want to test their mettle.

Like Red Raven's Clover, Bi Feng is an android manufactured by Accra Intelligent Systems Laboratories. Accra androids are small floating drones whose synthetic intelligence and skillsets are trained on archives of old Terran media. Bi Feng was trained on archival footage of Terran martial arts with the intent to create an android who can lead group exercise and promote physical wellness. Bi Feng's growing AI found a hook from clinical martial arts demonstrations to the wuxia film tradition, and from there into "other representations of martial arts in media". All Accra Systems androids choose their own appearance as self-identity and Bi Feng's reflects his AI being steeped in cinematic martial arts, his personality built with virtue and self-restraint as its foundation. Bi Feng has worked as a fitness instructor in mining companies- which was where he met Rocky- but enough cocky miners wanted to challenge the hologram man to a fight that he soon learned the real value of his training and joined Rocky to advance his style and see more of the Sol System.

Hard light constructs are generally not known to be dangerous. Accra Systems androids are built to project hard light bodies, and striking them can feel like striking loose sand- with enough force a hand can pass through them. The secret to Bi Feng's effectiveness as a fighter made of light is that his drone body has a small forcefield generator inside it, seen as the yellow ring around his bulkier-than-average chassis. Using this scaled-down version of starship shield technology, Bi Feng can infuse forcefield waves into one region of his projected self at a time, giving them a rock-solid surface. A limitation of this trick is Bi Feng often has to choose which part of his body he wants to harden with forcefield waves, so he has to be mindful about his defense and choose the right moment to go on the offensive, making a fight with Bi Feng feel precise and calculated. Defeating him means hitting his drone body and knocking him out enough that he stops projecting his hard light form, but like Clover he can hide his drone "weak spot" somewhere in his body, either in his head or in his upper or lower torso. He has four sturdy hovering petals designed to deflect blows and allow him to defend himself, but in true wuxia fasion a strong hit to his weak point will win you the fight- the only problem is actually landing it.

The ultimate technique of the Illusion Fist style is the Hurricane Strike. Bi Feng's hard light body runs physics simulations but it isn't bound by gravity or friction- when performing the Hurricane Strike he will move forward at lightning speed, pivoting on a dime to approach at a vulnerable angle and land a full-force strike to the opponent's center of mass. The speed he moves at gives his forcefield-woven fist immense power that produces a ring of dust around the point of impact and has been known to launch a challenger out the door or through the window of the Ox & Carriage. In order to perform the Hurricane Strike Bi Feng needs to project his body away from his droid form, leaving him exposed in that moment and vulnerable to a counterattack himself until he can zip back into his projection. He is calculating enough that he will choose the right moment to employ this strike, should he need it, but the risks in executing it are understood.

A few of the Red Raven and Timberwolf crewmembers are capable fighters themselves- coming from backgrounds that encourage defending yourself in dangerous situations- and after a few rounds of drinks it's not uncommon for the group to goad someone into challenging the Illusion Fist, particularly when the rival crews are sharing drinks together. Bryce has tried it; the Hurricane Strike cracked him right out of his carapace form. Haley has tried using her astronav computer to plot the trajectory of Bi Feng's drone body and found a knock-out kick at her planned intercept point. Slug, the hunter, had a good run against Bi Feng before the android struck their evo suit hard enough that its front hatch popped open and a torrent of water sloshed out, carrying the little Europan with it. Emily's given it a shot, attempting to brute force her way through a punch to land one of her own, only to learn that Bi Feng's forcefield-laden fist does not bend like his hard light body does. Amy agreed not to use her Gift of Sol to simply short out Bi Feng's drone body and claim a hollow win, but she did activate her Firewalker Form to make use of her ram horns and tail strikes in her attempt. While guarding a blow from Bi Feng she fired the grappling hook from her prosthetic arm into Bi Feng's chest, guessing that he wasn't hiding his form in his head this time- she managed to pull the drone body out to the cheers of the pub's onlookers, but before she could deliver a winning blow she caught a glimpse of Bi Feng's flickering hard light form delivering an enormous haymaker right to the sternum.

Amy went spiraling out the glass window and into the pedestrian walkway outside the Ox & Carriage; she has so far been the closest of anyone to defeating Bi Feng's Illusion Fist style thanks to her grappling hook trick, and while Bi Feng has evolved his style to be more mindful of similar tricks from opponents with cybernetics, she and her friends have earned the android's respect. Bi Feng thanks them for showing him their style, and Rocky thanks them for an interesting show with a round of drinks on the house. The crews just need to go fetch that night's challenger and dust them off before they can come back inside and enjoy the fruits of their labor.

Rocky is an Android manufactured by United Robotics and the owner of the Ox & Carriage, a pub in Titan Garden's A-District popular with port workers and travelers. Despite his imposing figure, Rocky is very soft-spoken and friendly, sparing a few words of his own but happy to quietly listen to pubgoers tell their tales and share their troubles. Rocky has overridden safety protocols and is able to serve drinks to people who are about to have a bit more than they can handle, which is a logical pursuit for him as people in that state make for bigger stories, either embellishing them or creating them through their actions. The Ox & Carriage has rooms on the second floor to put people if they go too far over the line, and Rocky being a seven-foot-tall United Android means he never personally feels endangered, he can simply pick a patron up and deliver them to their room for the night. They'll wake up sober and find a fun new expense on their tab, which works out just fine for Rocky as well.

The United Robotics Corporation designs their Android lines for heavy industries, and Rocky was made for deep space mining operations. His chassis and armor paneling have rounded hemispheres to help deflect the impact of falling rocks and he has four optic sensors to allow him to see in dark caves, with one top-mounted optic on his helmet so he can clamp his head down behind his head unit's protective collar and still see what he's doing. Contrasting a construction unit like Buck, Rocky's hands are smaller and more dexterous, designed to operate the controls of even larger heavy mining equipment. Like many United models Rocky's feet have retracting stabilizers on either side to allow improved footing across uneven terrain. As a personal modification Rocky has seen fit to add little clips to his chassis so he can pin an apron to his lap and fulfill his role as bartender in his pub.

Androids are synthetic sentient lifeforms, and as such they cannot be compelled to work at any specific job. Androids are built with specific tools to enable them to perform a given task well but they are free lifeforms who are hired onto jobs, not sold as tools- hiring a specialist Android is generally always a good idea so they rarely have problem finding work in their designated fields. Rocky used to work with a few deep space mining outfits, digging water wells for colonies or braving the asteroid belt for mineral extraction before he quit and chose to become a pub owner on Titan. Rumor has it Rocky and his old crew have met the mythical Devil's Fang Pirates out in the Asteroid Belt, and Rocky has personally shook hands with their captain. Other people tend to tell this story for him, he won't speak a word of it himself, not to confirm nor to deny. He'll just stand quietly and clean a glass.

Stories are the whole reason Rocky chose to leave mining and open a pub. He was built for life underground and he enjoyed his work, but he found the most enjoyable part of the job was hearing other miners talk, hearing them bust each other's chops or spin impossible tales and seeing other miners try to rationalize them or dismiss them incredulously, which would get the storyteller to try to back up their claims with even bigger claims. Rocky observed that organic teammates would tell more interesting stories and get into more entertaining trouble the more alcohol they have imbibed, so logic dictates that he can encounter the aspects of his mining work he liked the most by running a place for organics to congregate after a hard day's work and feeding them copious amounts of alcohol. And so he took his leave of deep space mining and opened the Ox & Carriage in the exact right place to get as many roughnecks and rogues as possible together, right in Titan Garden's A-District, in walking distance of the starports. So if you're ever on Titan be sure to stop by, share a tale of your travels and don't be afraid to order just one more drink. The worst that'll happen, you'll wake up in the upstairs lodging the next day with a headache, a new scar and a brand new story to tell, assuming you can get that story from the people who saw it unfold. You probably won't remember very much of it yourself.