Degrees of Darkness

[Pom Stych Tivé]

In the vast library of the Mandragora, the Nightsister Mistress, Pom Stych Tivé had uncovered a journal regarding a buried stash of Darkside Artifacts. She stopped trying to drag coven members on every quest, and she did not approve of the moral compass of the members of the Ministry of Secrets to acquire Dark Artifacts. She did not trust that they would render over any such items they deemed too dangerous for one to possess. They were suspected of disposing that which did not align to their ideal Force extreme. The Nightsister was not about to allow another division of the CIS to dictate to her what she can or cannot handle, and should or should not explore for herself. The Mandragora of the CIS were secretly in a competition with it’s own the Ministry of Secrets, to claim artifacts before the other discovers their existence. The Mandragora have a secret agenda to garner power for their own personal advancement. Her experience with the Force sensitives, is that they don’t accept the dogma of the witch as true; and yet none among them have opened themselves up to dialog to attempt to even discover the vast potential and possibilities Magick can grant them. As a result, the Mandragora witches have grown biased against their own faction. Magick does not belong in the hands of the untrained, and unimaginative. Their hard stance is an insult to the Nightsisters’ entire life focus! So here she is, following the tip she uncovered.



Earlier Pomsty had raced to meet her sister Vytal who is teaching her how to travel through the Nether-realm across space. Pomsty’s gift is seeing the galaxy wrapped in the waves of the Force, and Vytal’s is to see the Nether Realm, a plane which exists as an overlay to the physical galaxy we comprehend. Together, the two Nightsisters combine their skills to travel the galaxy. Pomsty focused on the planet she intended to travel to, determined by its journal coordinates, while Vytal lead her to its intersecting plane.



Pomsty arrived in a puff of black smoke, with only seconds to decide if she should land her feet upon the ground or continue on in Appatation. She would not prefer to materialize over a mass of water. Now returning to her home is easy. All she has to do it concentrate upon her sister’s signature and she stands behind her, awaiting Vytal to reclaim her out of the Netherworld again.

Upon Arzid she appeared, her datapad relaying the atmosphere as safe, along with a readout on the local ecosystem. Much data displayed in red, highlighted as dangerous. Pomsty's mouth instantly dropped open when she saw the type of life surrounding where she stood.

The towering mushroom spines seem to be squirming. Her datapad beeped, as text flashed warning about the native two meter tall Arachnor. "Eeewe!!" she exclaimed in disgust. Something truly special must to be buried here, for the planet is alive with native deterrents.

 

[Jorah zos Darnus]

From nothing, into nothing, one was born into the physical realm.

The young Dathomiri passed into nothing again, passing through the breach that [member="Vytal Noctura"] had summoned. It was an experience unlike any other. Passing beyond shadow, beyond darkness.

The youth re-materialized. To him, it seemed as if no more time had lapsed than was necessary to put one foot in front of the next. Yet, the electronics within the suit that he wore were discombobulated. Global positioning systems thrown into disarray, as the onboard electronics attempted to calculate time-spatial data. It would be several minutes before those systems had calibrated for the sudden displacement, having crossed entire star systems in the span of a single step.

The youth pulled the mask away so that the augmented reality overlay was replaced, instead, by his own eyes. The Knights Obsidian were well served by their gadgets in the physical world of man. But this was different. The world around them was not entirely that of the physical. Manifestations of the spirits were among them.

Powerful spirits.

Dropping one shoulder, the boy un-slung an energy bow into his arms. Two fingers moved along the drawstring trigger, sending a pulse of plasma energy through the device. Amber eyes prowled the wilderness around them. The bushes slithered, the mushrooms dripped with poison, and the boy was vaguely aware of the presence of predators stalking beyond sight or hearing.

"Ci id yol Tir," the boy noted simply, speaking in the language of Dathomir. "Shar s'lakinu hai bisi meni naiyera."
I like this place. It promises to not be boring.

[member="Pom Stych Tivé"]​

 

[Tempest Yore]

The Mistress Malcontent has already Apparated away and is out of sight by the time Tempest Yore rode in upon the shirttails of the Nightbrother. Vytal had been unsuspecting of the girl’s rash actions to join him in his journey and therefore too slow to stop her from tagging long after him. Perhaps the Nightsister saw it as a good lesson, that she did not put a stop to Tempest following the Nightbrother, for she certainly could have done so, had she felt the need pressing enough.

Tempest immediately suspected their mission leader knew nothing of Jorah’s accompaniment, while the boy could not have anticipated Tempest’s shenanigans! Mistress Pomsty is nowhere to be found.

“Hi,” the young girl giggled, as her feet touched solid ground behind Jorah. “What are you doing?” she asked looking past his at the strange plant-life. “Oh no." Everything looks so gigantic compared to herself and Jorah. "Have we been miniaturized?! What an awful mishap!” She never saw such huge towering mushrooms before. She scrunched her nose as she wondered at them, “What could they possibly be protruding from?” That she knew, mushrooms only spring out of revolting and rotting conditions. And this place certainly does have a slightly familiar and thick earthy stench in the air.

“Even more pressing, I suppose, is the question how is it that they appear to be moving?” She strained her eyes to focus on the underside of the mushroom caps. They appear, “kind of squirmy; am I right?” she deduced. Her eyes however did not reveal the reason.

Here and there, the culprits of the squirminess seem to start dropping down straight towards the ground, more as if they are gliding. Then after a brief moment of watching this occur from all angles around them, Tempest observed the phenomenon taking place more and more, and all at once. And then...it seems the stuff gliding downward from the underside of the mushroom caps is... “Jorah...is whatever that is, actually coming straight for us?” she asked with eyes wide, watching the ground foliage part in rows, paths heading in their direction, again from all angles around them.

Her heart started pounding away inside her chest. She watched her suspicions manifest into reality. As whatever it is on approach came closer, the beasts could be identified as the haughty, frightful, revolting, icky…Tempest's upper lips curled upward in disgust…indigenous giant spiders.

At the sight of the horde and realization of their great number, Tempest could not help but open her mouth wide and shriek to high heaven. It is her way. She jerked her arm and produced her magick wand in preparation for a fight to her death.

"Daddy," she cried out, realizing she really needs to study more about the systems!






[member="Jorah zos Darnus"]

 

[Jorah zos Darnus]

The boy was unconcerned as Pom teleported away.

Perhaps she would return, when she felt the time was right. Perhaps what she was looking for was not to be found on this planet. In that, their intentions diverged. Where the boy had come with the intention of serving as a guardian to the Nightsister, what he saw before him was a challenge.

Besides, Vytal knew where he was located. She could summon him back to Ryloth with no more than a whim. Until that time, the boy was content to take advantage of the opportunity that this world afforded him.

Another presence joined him, the horned youth finding himself back-to-back with a young girl, though her outward appearance was not that of Dathomir. Was she Mandragora? Or another of the Obsidian squires?

Pulling back on the draw string, a glowing amber projectile formed as the horned youth fired an energy arrow out at one of tentacles that was creeping toward them. Pulling back on the draw string a second time, the boy loosed a second bolt soon after. Then he pulled back on the string and held onto it. "Training," the boy uttered in Galactic Basic, in response to her question about what he was doing.

As he spoke, there was audible hum radiating from the bow as energy began to collect into an overcharged shot. Stepping off to one side, the boy dropped to a knee as he pivoted and fired the heavy shot across the girl's field of vision. The shot cracked like lightning, piercing through several of the encroaching vines.

"This challenge good, yes?" the boy remarked in his accented speech. Rising up to his feet, he dropped the energy bow down by his side. Reaching across to his hip with his draw-hand, he plucked the Obsidian lightsaber from its place at his side, holding it out for the girl to take.

[member="Tempest Yore"]​