Mummers Supplemental

It has only been seventy days since the Mummers Compendium first went public, and in that time we are pleased to report having witnessed a renaissance in tavern culture. The ordinary hunter has awakened to the realisation that an alternative to the megacorporate monopolies does exist and that a superior experience can be had in some of the smaller networks. Many of the more progressive establishments have embraced the complimentary assistance that the Mummers have to offer, and our agents are reporting a general increase in customer traffic across the board. As we encounter and come to understand a wider variety of cultures, we have also been forced to re-evaluate our very own concepts of the Compendium grading criteria.

There are a handful of networks that unfortunately seem to have interpreted the Compendium as an act of hostility, although I don’t understand how they arrived at that conclusion. I was once a devoted client of one such franchise. It stands to reason that barring a specific hunter from being issued pucks is a guildmaster’s privilege. But preventing the Bondsman’s Guild from fulfilling their obligations to the client is another matter entirely. Some say that the Creed is merely a list of suggestions, and perhaps they are right. But those suggestions exist for a single purpose: to keep the Bondsmen in business. Guildmasters should be mindful of their responsibilities to the Bondsmen when they broker with hunters. It is not a guildmaster’s prerogative to obstruct the delivery of rescued hostages. Tribunals are inconvenient for everyone involved.

As I’ve continued growing as a bounty hunter and seen more of the disc and its wonders, my insights have changed, and sometimes I come to understand things that escaped me before. For example, I recently set out to look for evidence that would disprove the claims I made in Compendium #24 about the uniformity of Argent Company posts. I did not discover the neglected backwater dive that I was expecting to find, but I did begin to detect a pattern that had previously been invisible to me. The Compendium’s standards have always been based entirely upon what is considered to be normal on Naboo. But what I initially misjudged as a vague dullness actually turns out to be a sort of tranquility that is part of the subtle Argent charm.

There are some bars where you can go to get lost in wild revelry, and then there are bars like the Argent Company’s. Places where you can quench your thirst while browsing the HoloNet, reading a chapter from your eBook, or absorbing yourself in a game of dejarik. I’ve been told that the serenity of these tapcafs is due to a cultural preference Mandalorians have for awareness of their surroundings. I’ve also been told that Mandalorians get more vocal when strangers are not present, but the calm makes it rather difficult to go unnoticed. I’ve tried leaving and then suddenly jumping back inside, and I think I caught one or two guys who quickly stopped talking, but I couldn’t really be sure. The staff all speak excellent Basic and are happy to read the Mandalorian signs for you, and I feel that we owe Argent an apology, and we offer that by upgrading them to a two-star rating, on par with AMC and Cantrell.

That brings me to a recent discovery I had the distinct pleasure of making while checking on the status of our agents in the city of Bountiville, in Dukha space. I had previously overlooked this reclusive little gem on past visits, to my misfortune. An engaging atmosphere with a high-calibre menu, The Guardians of Kiffu was an experience that I anxiously anticipate having again. The barmaids are easy to look at, but their names are a bit hard to remember. The Corellian whisky is particularly good. They proudly display the Creed right there in the Guild office, and I’m told that preferred customers even have access to secure storage. Have I mentioned that they have regulation pazaak tables? Some of the patrons can get a little bit rough during certain hours, though; you just watch yourself. I am excited to announce that the Mummers have awarded The Guardians of Kiffu our very first genuine three-star rating! Excelsior!

They won’t be the only ones for long, as proprietors are steadily expanding their goods and services every week. We constantly monitor our own distribution sites and discover exciting new brands of spirits hitting the market regularly. But of course, we cannot monitor the progress of franchises if we are banned from entering. It has been stated previously in other publications that the Mummers only score bounty-hunting networks on the goods and services that we can directly observe. If we cannot observe them, we will, of course, assume that they simply do not exist. That makes blacklisting the Mummers an interesting strategy for those curiously defiant networks that have chosen to adopt it. Let’s see how that works out for them. This is Steven Dirtfarmer for the Mummers; we’re all in this together. Shado tee-tocka!