Mix Liddell

"I'm Chief Liddell. Who can tell me what happened here?"

- Mix Liddell

Mix Liddell was a male Mon Calamari harpooneer working for Bartyn Gourmet Delicacies and, later, the Chief of Security of the coastal town of Bartyn's Landing in the planet Lamaredd from 69 BBY to 29 BBY.

Liddell obtained his job as sheriff during the attacks of the dark jedi outlaw known as The Padawan, which was eventually captured by Liddell. In his time as constable, Liddell obtained notoriety for behing a just man and a very good sniper, winning ten times the annual Landing Shooutout and retiring undefeated. He also was one of the main figures of the events surrouding the reappearance of the believed-extinct Menahuun species. After that, Liddell renounced to his rank to try a career in politics, making good use of his local popularity.

Liddell was well-liked among his friends and even respected by some of his enemies including The Padawan &mdash; although the local major Guther Bartyn was not always happy with Liddell's activities. Liddell had his trusted friend Grubber Vapps as his Second-in-command and proxy, and was known to sail with the local doctor MD-0C6. Liddell also had some kind of romantic relationship with Miss Mylla, the manager of a entertainment house.

Biography
"You folks look to be new in town, and understand you're not under arrest. Help me get to the bottom of this, and I'll fill you in on 'the Padawan' here."

- Mix Liddell

Mix Liddell was a male Mon Calamari born in Bartyn's Landing, a coastal town in the planet Lamaredd c. 95 BBY.

During the first years of his life, he worked in the trawler Swilla as a harpoon person and was a member of the Sailor's Union. C. 69 BBY, twenty-six-year-old Liddell stopped working in the boat to become one of the Seconds of the local Security Chief, Ertine. As the job was technically a branch of Outer Rim Oreworks and this enter in conflict with the Sailor's Union, Liddell stopped being a member of the syndicate.

Being Liddell still an inexperienced rookie, Bartyn's Landing and nearby areas, including farms and boat routes, were raided by a gang of outlaws that was rumored to be lead by a lightsaber-wielding dark jedi sorcerer known only as "The Padawan." Ertine took his four Seconds, including Liddell, and tracked the gang to their hideout. The Padawan &mdash;who was really Byrch Dyshkava, a fallen jedi&mdash; was cautious enough to keep a watch and saw Ertine coming. Dyshkava and his gang ambushed the Chief and his Seconds and, after a short skirmish, they left, believing to have killed all of them.

Liddell was seriously wounded, but he survived and returned to Bartyn's Landing. Once there, he was cured in the bacta tank of the local doctor, MD-0C6. The town council then had a short meeting to choose a replacing Security Chief, and Liddell was unanimously ellected.

Liddell prompty accepted the job. He appointed several Seconds who had been sailors up to this point, including Grubber Vapps, and used the help of trusted citizens to prepare a trap for Dyshkava, including a farmer who offered his property as the battlefield. Liddell them attracted Dyshkava's gang and ambushed them in an overwhelming defeat. Most of the desperadoes were either killed or captured, and even Dyshkava was apprehended. The Padawan was chained and sent to jail, but he escaped during Liddell watch, the only prisoner to achieve this feat. A bounty was offered for his capture, but Dyshkava had disappeared from any civilized area, having been captured by the secretive sentient species known as the Menahuun. Liddell sworn to find Dyshkava and took him to justice but, as years passed by, he came to believe that he would never meet Dyshkava again.

As the Security Chief, Liddell officially worked for ORO and answered to the Administrator of the ORO mines, who was coincidentially the mayor of Bartyn's Landing. The Administratorship understood the nature of the Chief's work and was much more lenient with Liddell's methods and activities than they were with the all-Human security staff of the spaceport, who worked for ORO in similar conditions.

During the following forty years, Chief Liddell performed several kinds of activities due to his job. He organized posses to go after offenders and hunting groups to free the area from dangerous predators or to map the mountains. He hunted dangerous animals by himself, found lost pets and mediate quarrels among the citizens. He also appeared during fistfights in local watering holes, including the Tailfin Cantina, should anyone tried to use lethal weapons. In time, the citizens of Bartyn's Landing considered Liddell to have been the best Security Chief in their lifetime &mdash; a notable achievement in the case of MD-0C6, who subscribed that opinion and who had lived in the Landing without a memory wipe since 529 BBY.

During his time as Chief, Liddell believed that ORO was periodically sending official inspectors to check the local mines, but the Administrator was really bribing the ORO officers and sent his men, disguised as inspectors, just to mislead Liddell and the locals.

In 55 BBY, crack sniper Liddell won the first prize annual Landing Shootout of Bartyn's Landing for the first time. Liddell would repeat his victory in the nine following years, achieving great prestige and breaking a record. Then, Liddell decided to retire from the contest. From that point onward, Liddell, a gifted artisen, handcrafted the first prize: A pearl-handed slugthrower with improved power.

In 29 BBY, a herd of migrating predators from the jungle crowded the area around Bartyn's Landing and Liddell recruited several people to help him clearing the lands. That same year, a member of the town council was killed in the unfavorable area known as The Ring, and Liddell and his allies investigated the case. At that point, Liddell believed that several of his Seconds were being bribed by Administrator Guther Bartyn so that he could hide some of his unofficial activities, but Liddell still trusted his personal friend Vapps and the Gungan known as Boom Boom. Bartyn was also pressing Liddell to investigate supposed attacks of gremlins &mdash;really Menahuun&mdash; in the docks, mostly because Bartyn was worried about his personal yatch.

That same year, Byrch Dyshkava escaped from the Menahuun that had been jailing him for forty years. Considering himself to be a useless elderly man, he went to Bartyn's Landing, wanting only to die in a blaze of glory, preferibly in a duel against Liddell. As Dyshkava was unable to find the Calamarian, he challenged some bystanders and was knocked down during the fight. Liddell appeared soon afterward and approached the winners of the duel, taking care to place an armed Vapps in the crowd just in case. When Liddell recognized Dyshkava, he took The Padawan to jail and got medical care for him. He also interviewed the victorious gunslingers, offered them the hefty bounty for Dyshkava and explained them the origin of their foe.

Trusting his instinct, and deciding that many of his current men were not reliable, Liddell offered to hire these newcomers as his Seconds. At that point, Dyshkava woke up and, questioned by Liddell, explained that he had been captured by the Menahuun while going through the coastline, but he could not give many more details as he was seriously ill. Liddell then raised his proposal to the group, offering to pay for rooms in Miss Mylla's Saloon, and then gave them the badges of Seconds.

Liddell sent his new Seconds and Boom Boom to examine the area where Dyshkava had been captured, and they indeed found Menahuun presence &mdash;hostile, organized, laser-armed Menahuun presence that tried their best to leave little proof of their existence. Liddell also sent them to investigate the reports about gremlins in the port, and they also found Menahuun there &mdash; but at that point Liddell was unavailable to hear the report.

The Seconds eventually found Liddell and showed him a weapon they had seized from the Menahuun. Liddell identified it as a mining laser and sent the Seconds to meet with Guther Bartyn, Administrator of the fully-automated mines. Liddell warned them against Bartyn using circumlotions instead of giving them information.

Eventually, the Seconds discovered a Menahuun community hiding in the mines, and negotiated a peace with them. The sudden reappearance of the Menahuun was particularly shameful to ORO, as they were living proof of an agent of ORO trying to commit genocide; this led to ORO abandoning Lamaredd, which in turn reduced the power of the Bartyn family. Guther Bartyn was ceased as the Administrator, and Mix Liddell stood for the public office.

During a pre-election rally, a young outlaw who wanted to became a renowned criminal like Dyshkava sniped at Liddell with a slugthrower rifle. Liddell survived and became the new ellected Administrator, being replaced as Security Chief by Vapps. Guther Bartyn, in turn, went crazy and re-programmed two MMV mining droids to attack several alien citizens of Bartyn's Landing. Administrator Liddell and Chief Vapps were unable to handle the situation by themselves and looked for external help.

Personality and traits
"Mix! You swore you'd kill me! You swore!"

- Byrch "The Padawan" Dyshkava

Although Liddell was skillful when using the baton or the vibrodagger he carried with himself, he was a real expert using slugthrower weapons, which he also handcrafted as a personal hobby &mdash; slugthrower weapons were preferred by many in Lamaredd, as energy for blasters was a rare luxury. Beyond his offensive abilities, he was also knowledgeable in the fields of law enforcement and had experience as a sailor. Liddell was fluent in the most extended languages of Lamaredd, including Galactic Basic Standard, Calamarian, Chagri, Huttese, Rodese and Quarrenese.

Liddell owned a repulsorsail speederboat that he named Ertine, honoring his predecessor as a Chief. He enjoyed sailing for pleasure, sometimes in the company of his good friend MD-0C6. Liddell also used one of the few air vehicles of Bartyn's Landing, a battered, once-shiny bronze-colored Bespin Motors Flurry II combat cloud car, nicknamed "Brassie", that ORO had provided him with for air patrols looking for missing people. Liddell commonly parked "Brassie" on his office's roof.

Liddell's best personal friend was Grubber Vapps, his trusted Senior Second and successor as a Chief of Security. Vapps took part in illegal Cargo Track races in the area of Center Sphere, and commonly won. Vapps believed that this was a secret, but Liddell had discovered his out-of-hours activity. Nonetheless, Liddell decided not to mention it because having a trusted man in these activities could be useful one day, and also because Vapps was a winning horse at that.

Liddell was admired and appreciate by the citizens of Bartyn's Landing. His professed enemies, including common bandits and The Padawan, tended to not understimate Liddell more than once. The Padawan himself felt a strong respect for Liddell, as Liddell who could defeat him fairly and was much more a gentlebeing than the Menahuun.

Mix Liddell enjoyed his job as Chief of Security, but he admitted it had disadvantages. To become a policeman, he had to renounce to the Sailor's Union, something he regretted fondly. He also disliked Administrator Guther Bartyn and would rather not obey some of his whims, but Liddell respected the chain of command.

Liddell was known to dislike street duels with fireweapons, even if they were a custom in Bartyn's Landing. To Liddell, that activity was little more than a formalized murder, and he would even restrict his tears should a member of the audience be hurt at one of these.

Miss Mylla
"I don't know if you've been to see Miss Mylla yet. She's hard to miss-about six feet tall, green, legs up to here-but she runs a fine establishment. I'll send word I'm seconding you and that you need rooms. [smirk] Of course, I'm only paying for your stay. Until morning, then."

- Mix Liddell, to his new Seconds

Miss Mylla was the strikingly pretty Falleen owner and manager of a successful, 24-hour inn and entertainment house, Miss Mylla's Saloon, staffed mostly by attractive females. Mylla's beauty made her very popular among the males of Bartyn's Landing, including Liddell. She had declared repeatedly that only Liddell could make her settle down and abandon her life or vice, and she was decided to make him fall to her feminine tricks. Although Liddell did appreciate Mylla, he considered himself too much of a professional to openly chase such a woman.

Even if their relationship was unorthodox at best, Liddell spent most of his free time at Mylla's Saloon, commonly talking to her. Mylla provided Liddell some ellusive data that helped him during frustrating cases. They respected each other greatly. During the Menahuun crisis of 29 BBY, Mylla was having problems with corrupt ORO customs officers that were stealing her shipments of Corellian brandy. She knew she could have resorted to Liddell, but she feared he could irritate his ORO employeers one time too many, and thus she instead looked for help elsewhere as she was worried about her man.

Behind the scenes
Mix Liddell was created by writer Cory J. Herndon and featured in the article Bartyn's Landing and in the role-playing adventure Reckonings, both of them published in the magazine Star Wars Gamer #7 (2001).

The articles inconsistently say repeatedly that Liddell had became the Chief of Security forty years before the events in the adventure or twenty years before the events in the adventure. This article assumes that the first option is correct because it is repeatedly more frequently and is more coherent with other facts such as Liddell's ten-year victory at the annual Shootout &mdash; which would have otherwise began when he was a young, inexpert sailor.

Alternate endings
The article assumes that the player characters of Reckonings achieve the best possible ending but, should they fail, the adventure offers an alternative path that takes place during an open war between the Menahuun and the citizens of Bartyn's Landing. The Menahuun repeatedly raid Bartyn's Landing, clashing with the armed citizens. Bartyn takes over the command and recruits Liddell, his Seconds and many able-bodied citizens to join the battles defending the area. With the sudden disappearance of the police, crime raises. Several civilians attempt to leave the city and start anew in other parts of Lamaredd, with Miss Mylla trying to reach Little Mon Cal &mdash; but failing to arrive due to a transport accident near the Rank that left her boat and herself to the mercy of the Menahuun. Liddell discovers her fate before the Menahuun and he tries to send some of his allies to rescue her.