Star Wars Roleplay: Chaos

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Some Crypts aren't meant to be opened.

Krate, a relatively new addition to the territories of the Confederacy, a vast untamed world rich in natural resources just waiting to be tapped. It was also home to two large abandoned Sith temples.

Most of the inhabitants gave the locations a wide berth and rightly so. If the records were any indication, a lot of strange experiments were conducted on these sites. Dangerous mutations and aberrations lurking in the shadows just waiting to be rediscovered.

Daxton led a team of Templars to the second, larger site. Sventove delstij beda. Literally Shrine of Lingering Misery, it was reputed to house a large library of ancient Sith Alchemical Tomes.

It took them several days to get to the location via horseback, the guide going only as far as the mouth of the canyon. Refusing to go any further no matter what the reward was offered.

Getting off his mount, he surveyed the entrance of the temple. Build into the side of a towering cliff, a large portion of the entrance was blocked by debris. Sections of the stone had collapsed limiting, almost as if to bar entrance from those seeking the way inside.

Tying his mount so it wouldn't walk away, Daxton waited for the others to get ready before proceeding inside.

@[member="Vorhi Alestrani"]
@[member="Dar'jetii"]
@[member="Kara Avoyos"]
 
Vorhi grinned like a kid at a candy store. He was an archaeologist, before he'd become a Templar. He loved ruins, he loved rocks he loved a good mystery. Honestly this was his element and he love it, enjoying the vie and the weather, despite his "blindness." He smiled as the ruins, slowly leading his horse to water, and the tying him off to a strong, safe tree. "Stay here at peace, little one. We have mysteries to delve," he said with a smile, bowing to the horse calmly as he kept walking, looking over at Daxton before stopping to take in the site.

He looked at the tomb. Early Sith Emprie architecture. Local stone, but the influence of Korriban on the carvings and techniques was obvious. Prior to the fall of Vitiate, based on the grammar of the runes. Amazing. So that'd make it..ancient. He laughed. "Better than I'd hoped, Master Bane. Based on the runes, I'd say it in the neighbourhood for four to five thousands years old," he said calmly. "At least here on the surface. It's not unlike the Vitiate-Era Sith to build new buildings on top of older ones, so we may find some even wilder relics in here," he said with a grin. he looekd at Daxton with an aprpeicative smirk. "Thanks for bringing me out here. I've been missing field work."
 
Kara was seriously considering the major life choices she had made in the last year. All of the large battles she’d been fighting in latetly were one thing. Sure they carried the risk of death or serious injury, but so had exploring uncharted planets. This seeker thing though, was a totally new level of bad idea. Willingly walking into a place called the Shine of Lingering Misery had to be one of the least sensible things any sentient could do, and yet her she was doing just that.

The fact that they intended to explore the shrine and raid it for valuables just added to the nonsense. Years of watching every horror vid created told Kara that this would end two ways: either no one would make it out alive, or most of them would make it out only to be hunted down by some accursed sithspawn that ate their insides and danced around in their skins. Neither option sounded like a whole lot of fun. Being the only girl, she figured there was a chance she could survive, but only if she latched herself onto one of the other as some sort of pathetic love interest.

The blond looked up ahead and caught sight of Daxton, who had been riding in front of her. Nope, she was going to die.

“So,” Kara began, wanting to make an obligatory appeal to sanity before everyone went traipsing into the jaws of certain death anyway. “You guys know this never ends well right? Explorers working for some shady military organization go into the creepy-ass ruins and unleash death, destruction, and bad special effects upon the universe. Something is going to be wearing out skin by the end of the day. I’m not suggesting we turn back, I just want to be able to say ‘I told you so’ as whatever is in there rips us limb from limb.”
 
Xardus rode up behind the other two and dismounted his horse. Peering at the temple from afar, it was clear to him why Daxton had picked this site in particular. Even from this distance, he could feel the dark side emanating from the shrine. Whatever was in there, it must have been pretty powerful. Walking up to the Zabrak, he cleared his throat. "So, this is the place, huh? Are we just gonna hop in, or wait here all day?" He had to admit, he was anxious. Though he had spent his time mingling with the dark side once before, the feeling simply unsettled him. He wanted to get this artifact, and get out as soon as he could.

@[member="Daxton Bane"]@[member="Kara Avoyos"]@[member="Vorhi Alestrani"]
 
Forecaster arrived right behind her master. Slowly getting off her mount she made her way beside him and the others. She examined them all. All well known names in the CIS, Daxton known throughout. Good, a team like this should do well together, she thought. Looking to her master she spoke, "The artifacts here are of Sith origins. We should be cautious, many ruins such as this have many traps."

Forecaster knew her history and knew the dangers of Sith temples, even those outside of Korriban and Malachor. She now sat silently waiting for the team to move in. This would be fun.

@[member="Xardus Folidaar"] @[member="Kara Avoyos"] @[member="Vorhi Alestrani"] @[member="Daxton Bane"]
 
Taking a torchlight from his pack, he turned it on so that the lumen beam played over the stone surface. The original designed had been weathered by a combination of time and exposure to the elements, but anyone sensitive to the force could still feel the residual dark energies infused into its very core.


Activating his communicator, he said to the group, "Alright listen up. Pair up in two groups. One goes with me and the other with Vorhi. He is the most skilled with this type of environment so listen to what he would say. Try to avoid touching anything unless its cleared. We have to assume there are traps inside, so we don't want to trigger any of them unnecessarily."

Pausing to let that sink in, he continue. "Keep in communicator contact at all times. We don't know how deep this thing goes so we have to prepare for the worst. Our objective is to locate the library and secure its contents safely. Any questions?"

Taking several lengths of climbing rope, he shouldered the coil after securing the end around the stone pillar partially blocking the entrance. Ducking beneath it, he entered the cold dark interior of the crypt, his torch the only source of light to dispel the darkness.

--------------


Meanwhile deep in the cold dank depths of the crypt, ancient Sith Machinery slowly flickered to life when the pressure plates at the entrance noted the presence of visitors. With a soft hiss the doors of the hibernation chamber slid open and a talon tipped appendage emerged from the swirling clouds of gas to grip the edge of the vessel, hungry red orbs blinked, shaking the lethargy of sleep as it gazed on the images of its next meal on the monitors of its home.






@[member="Vorhi Alestrani"]
@[member="Dar'jetii"]
@[member="Kara Avoyos"]
@[member="Xardus Folidaar"]
@[member="The Forecaster"]

[please don't forget to tag, so we all know to check the thread. Thanks.]
 
Vorhi smiled weakly. Hmm, splitting up into teams. He chuckled at little at Kara's suggestion. The thing about holoflicks was casting, and in all honesty, Vorhi and Daxton were too bloody crazy to being with. They'd be the monster before the victim, nine times out of ten. If any thing, this was an action movie, not a horror story. Probably. He hand a torchlight to Xardus with a nod. "You're both right," he mused dryly to the others. "Most force-users leave security that outlives them by a wide margin. Sith prefer death-traps, and on rare occasions, Sithspawn."

He looked about the team calmly. "Xardus, Dar'jetii, you two will join me. Keep the light steady, I won't need it but you will," he said, tapping his own forehead cheerily. "Assume every object that is in any way unique or interesting was designed to possibly kill you. In a place like this, being a little paranoid will keep you from getting hit," he said calmly. After all, he was no genius either. But, he was pretty practiced. He smiled warmly. "Daxton, good luck and happy hunting. Since you know Sith linguistics, pretty well, I'll leave you to it," he said until he sensed it.

One of the advantages of seeing with the force is that you could see vast contractions of it--like the fact that many of the stones were connected by it. The building was held together my small threads of force energy, anchored to various switches and levers. The second the pressure plate was triggered, a small spark of energy flew through the building, like a lightbulb bursting into flames and the fire hitting a moth, flying through the building. A signal had been sent. But, to what? Or whom?


"Well, we've hit something," he said calmly. "My sight is picking up a change in the flow of energy. Power's jumping somewhere," he said calmly. "Eyes open and stay cautious," he said as he grabbed a rope as well. "This is gonna be a hell of a ride," he mumbled as his old bones repelled downward. "Onward and downward, kids! Don't want an old goat to show you up, do ya?"

@[member="Kara Avoyos"] @[member="Daxton Bane"] @[member="Dar'jetii"] @[member="The Forecaster"] @[member="Xardus Folidaar"]
 
"We should bring my apprentice along as well. Xardus looked over to @[member="The Forecaster"] . "She and I work better as a team." As the group walked towards the temple, he could feel rippling waves of energy move around them. That, added to the dark side, and it made the place certifiably creepy. As he looked around the inside, he made sure to keep a firm grip on his lightsaber. Whatever was inside, he wanted to be ready. "Stay close", he said to his apprentice. He had only just begun to train her, and didn't want anything to go wrong where he might be picking up remains of her corpse.

@[member="Vorhi Alestrani"]@[member="Daxton Bane"]@[member="Kara Avoyos"]
 
Forecaster followed closely behind Xardus. She knew the many dangers of places like this. Even at her early stage of training, she could feel the darkness around them. "The darkness of this place wraps around me like a blanket does a small child... I enjoy its comfort."

She was intrigued by the leader of the team, Vorhi Alestrani. This man wasn't yet a master but he knew much more then a knight. She found it interesting. So interesting that when he grabbed the rope and jumped downwards, she fell right in behind him. She knew Xardus might not like that, he was a cautious master and teacher, but she didn't care. She was learning and before her were some experienced force users. She wouldn't waste any time here.

@[member="Vorhi Alestrani"] @[member="Xardus Folidaar"] @[member="Dar'jetii"] @[member="Kara Avoyos"]
 
Xardus scowled a little when his student blindly followed the other Templar, but for different reasons. He understood taking risks, in fact he would have done the same thing in her position. But these Templars... Even though he had just joined the organization, he still didn't fully trust them. If anything, he was the most qualified one in the group to do a job like this. His knowledge in the force was almost that of a master. However, he understood rank and kept silent about it. They most likely trusted him in the same way he trusted them. No matter. Soon enough, he would learn to add them into his circle of friends. Shaking his head softly, he followed after the two, preferring to simply jump instead of using the rope. The wind rushing through his hair, he waited until the last few feet to create a ripple of air under him, cushioning his fall. They now stood in the darkness, save for the few lights flickering on and off. Summoning the force again, he forged a small orb of light in his palm.

@[member="The Forecaster"]@[member="Vorhi Alestrani"]@[member="Daxton Bane"]
 
As the group entered the entrance chamber, they could note that the temperature began to steadily drop, as a chill wind blew from within to brush their faces with scent of long abandoned decay and rot. As the breeze blew, it almost took a subaurial tone, like a soft low moan at the very edge of one's hearing.

The walls were covered with ancient Sith pictorial runes, which left little to the imagination. A cursory passing would tell a tale of how star gods walked to the planet and subjugated the population. There was a war between the gods until one was crowned emperor (although any who are versed in it would see that the proper title was Emperor beyond Death). At the end of his lifetime, he died and was buried in this crypt along with a host of his slaves, and a vast amount of treasure. At the very last part there was a incantation against thieves, warning that any who break into the tomb would invoke the wrath of the restless spirits to the end of their days.

Beyond the entrance portal was a stone passage that disappeared into the darkness after a few meters. Unless they got additional illumination, that was all the group could see from their current position.


@[member="Vorhi Alestrani"] @[member="Dar'jetii"] @[member="Kara Avoyos"] @[member="Xardus Folidaar"] @[member="The Forecaster"]
 
Vorhi nodded calmly Xardus. "As you wish. I wasn't aware she was your student," he said with a weak smile. He really, really needed to attend more meetigns on Roon. All this diplomatic work was making him lose track of who was who amongst the templars. He continued down the way, watching the others as he landed slowly on solid stone floor. It was nice enough. Still something was bothering him. He looked at the runes. Old Sith, matching the years he thought were there. He blinked as the other two landed after him, smling slightly. He looked at the other inscriptions. "There's a second inscription, and it's not Sith," he said thoughtfully. It looked like a similiar alphabet to Aurebesh, with few unique characters. And it definitely wasn't in basic. The wording was all different. "Hmm, it looks kind of like..." He mused thoughtfully.


The statues loomed about the chamber, hiding large shadows. A few of them were large, robed figures. "If we're to take the phrase Star-gods....hmmm" He looked up at one of the statues. "The natives were taken in by a group of exiled Sith. They were trying to colonize this world with an empire of their own, but then..." he sighed. "I think some of this language relates to something about a 'life beyond the veil of death' and another piece is peaking of a 'gem that screams the ancient ways'. It could be...." He mumbled under his breath. He saw a brief flash of a shadow in the distance, like a thing, dark glare. He sighed, pointing down a corridor. "I see something that's' moving and breathing, the force is showing it. That way," he said calmly. "If we are lucky, it is a wild animal. If we are not, then it's some kind of horrible thign made to protect this place from us. Either way, stay close, so we can handle it right," he said calmly.
 
They were splitting up. Wonderful, because that never ended in bloodstains. There was some shuffling with the original assignments, caused by the new guy insisting that his student never leave his sight. Kara couldn’t claim to have taken well to the two newcomers. Forcaster seemed to favor statements that were more poetic than useful, and Xardus’s expressions always seemed to hint that he mentally held himself in higher regard than the more experienced Vorhi and Daxton.

As a knight, it wasn’t her place comment on other people’s attitudes. It was probably for the best that she hadn’t ended up in a group with either of them since keeping opinions to herself was not on of Kara’s strong suits. While Daxton examined the writing on the wall, which to the untrained eye looked like decidedly ominous gibberish, she contented herself with watching out for any possible threats. Odds were there were plenty of unsavory things lurking in the darkness, waiting to gnaw on their bones.
 
Diving into the heart of a place potentially crawling with death and evil was something that the Mandalorian, born to the name Isley Verd, was not a stranger to. In fact, this expedition would be the third time that he had thrown caution to the wind in order to participate in such a venture. The first was during the Mandalorian's cleansing of Taris from the blight known as Rakghoul; during which Isley and his compatriots dived into the den of the enemy and laid waste to the monstrous creatures. The second was during an investigation of an ancient, Derelict Ship; within which the Mandalorians faced down genetically-spliced Sithspawn.

As such, Isley was not fearful in the slightest; for he was confident that he had seen worse. Silence ruled the beskar-clad warrior as he followed after his lead, Vorhi Alestrani, into the depths of the ruins. Upon entering the darkness, his photochromatic visor did as programmed and adjusted itself to allow him to see better in the shadows. This, coupled with his helmet's lights and scanners made it so that he would adequately see that which may come their way. However, while he had recently discovered the fact that he was in touch with the Force; and even received lessons in its usage, he was not as skilled as the Knight which led the team; as evidenced by Vorhi's acknowledgement of the pressure plates stirring something in the distance.

Upon coming into the room, the Mandalorian stood beside the one known as Forecaster, and listened intently as Vorhi read off the inscription. The words describing the ancient gem that screamed ancient ways intrigued Isley, for that seemed to be the sort of treasure they could go after. However, before Isley could comment, he placed his attention on that which Vorhi had pointed out in the corner. His blaster pistols were drawn and focused on the shadows... and he waited.

"Come on out..."

@[member="Vorhi Alestrani"], @[member="Kara Avoyos"], @[member="The Forecaster"], @[member="Xardus Folidaar"], @[member="Daxton Bane"].
 
Daxton was busy studying the runes, translating them automatically as he read them alone.

"Woe be thee who enters in Misery,
Souls lost in time and faith,
Crying in the hapless dark,
Those who guard in endless vigil,
Protecting the Eater of Thoughts and Dreams,

Languish for you know not truth from lie,
Friend from foe, life nor death,
Through the dragon's throat,
lies the heart of knowledge."

"Fark, sounds like some poor poet got a little too into writing this." Daxton commented in a huff. "There seems to be some sort of guardian, given that this is a Sith Temple it could just be about anything."

Deeper in the crypt as Vorhi's team proceeded forward, they picked up the faint movement ahead of them. An almost audible sound of something clawed or metallic rasping on stone. Furthermore they could not shake the feeling that they were being observed.

As they got deeper, they came upon a branching corridor, one passage lead to the east, and the other continued north. Both of the stone passages were filled with dust and cobwebs, that grew thicker as they proceeded forward.



@[member="Vorhi Alestrani"] @[member="Dar'jetii"] @[member="Kara Avoyos"] @[member="Xardus Folidaar"] @[member="The Forecaster"]
 
Vorhi blinked as he looked at some nearby runes etched on the walls. "He who slumbers here is he who would devour all?" He sighed. Always cryptic, these old temple-wrights. He always wondered who, exactly, was in charge of carving cryptic runes on temples. Was it a building code, like the number of bathrooms you were required to operate in a restaurant? Ah, well. He had admit, solving cryptic riddles was fun, as least. A cryptic crypt beat a simple cemetary any day, as his old instructor used to say. He smirked. "So, anyone want to guess what we woke up? And how it devaurs all?" He asked the two following him, making sure they were asking questions. After all, you didn't learn without participating in the process.

@Kara Avoyos @Daxton Bane @Dar'jetii @The Forecaster @Xardus Folidaar
 
In the deepest crypt the creature's mouth watered as it pondered what his new guests brains and thoughts would taste like. The more anguished the thought, the more delicious it was for it was a mind flayer. A psionic vampire that used the Force to drain the thoughts from its victims brains before it devoured them.

The last visitors were a bunch of looters a few months back, simple minds hardly worth more than a passing snack which forced it to go into hiberation.

But now these minds were strong, and hopefully so much more delicious. With a chuckle, he flipped a switch which opened a passage on the upper floor where he kept his 'guardians', the semi mummified remains of his former victims animated with droid servos. He remembered the thought that gave him the idea. Zombies, the dead coming back to life to punish the living. Strangely apt and amusing.

Upstairs, an even dozen shambling corpses approached the team lead by Vorhi, silent safe for the shuffling drag of feet on the dusty floor and stench of decay that wafted off their bodies.

Meanwhile the source of the cobweb filled corridors was slowly climbing down from the ceiling to the pair reading the runes. The giant spider's fangs gleamed hunger as he stalked its prey.

@[member="Vorhi Alestrani"] @[member="Dar'jetii"] @[member="Kara Avoyos"] @[member="Xardus Folidaar"] @[member="The Forecaster"]
 
Someone left behind a creepy poem, well that was just nice. And ominous. Also a bit confusing. Why couldn’t the Sith have left behind something useful? ‘Abandon hope all ye who enter: there is a big scary monster behind the third door on the right. It likes to eat people toes first, but is deathly allergic to fluffy bunnies.’ As it was Kara was going to be going over that damned poem in her head until it made some sort of sense. Or it drove her insane, which may well have been the intent given that a Sith wrote it.

“I don’t suppose they could have just blown their defense budget on poetry and foreboding architecture?” She suggested jokingly, imagining some poor Sith who couldn’t afford proper abominations and had just decided to bluff any future tomb raiders. It was unlikely, but a girl could always dream.

Cobwebs, even seemingly empty cobwebs, were gross. Rather than letting herself become covered in the stuff the Knight used her small amount of mastery over force push to brush the fragile material away as she moved forward. She thought she could hear something moving in the distance, but it was hard to tell if the sound was real or just cobweb induced paranoia.

@[member="Daxton Bane"] @[member="Dar'jetii"]
 
Sometimes the simplest of actions had the most unintentional of consequences. The act of brushing the cobwebs away with the Force, sent tremors down the complex weaves to the very creature that laid down the biological trap decades ago. Flexing limbs as thick as a man's forearm, the giant spider began to climb up the air vent to seek the prey that dared to enter its home.

Possessing a primitive sense of tactics it would drop down on its prey as they walked through the cobweb filled corridors, wrap them using powerful silk bindings into a cocoon to be devoured at its pleasure.

@Kara Avoyos
 

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