The Tomb of Jedi Knight Kroran

[Kroran]

The Rakghouls would fall as the shards of rubies pierced through their flesh and bone causing them all to fall towards the ground with a thud, however it was not over yet not for the former Ren he had but one more enemy to go through to truly learn "Peace". The ground would shake once again before suddenly bursting from the ground knocking the corpses of the Rakghouls aside. Once the dust cleared what was revealed was a large Terentatek, it's roar would shake the very ground beneath them before the monster charged at the Ren it's claws extended attempting to crush him.

[member="Milo Ren"]

 

[Kroran]

As the Scholar continued to rummage through the Library soaking in all the knowledge that had once thought to have been lost, a white light would glow in the mute colored room this light would peer down onto a podium revealing a large Book caked in dust and leather falling apart from it. The title of the book was mostly faded but if one we're to squint hard enough one could make out a few letters which when put together would make out "Je'daii Holy Texts" the book has certainty seen better days but all that would matter is what is written on the inside of this old book. Could it be the lost secrets of the old Je'daii order? maybe it recorded the events that happened in the long forgotten "Force Wars" No one would know unless one we're to peek inside it's pages, though despite how inviting it was it certaintly had "Trap" written all over it but who knows maybe the Scholar will be lucky?

[member="Cecilia Wissen"]

 

[Milo Ren]

"Just when I thought it was over."

A terantatek. Great. They were immune to virtually all Force abilities. Milo regretted giving his lightsaber now. What was one doing here? From his studies, the beasts only resided in Dark Side nexuses. There was definitely more to this temple than met the eye.

The beast roared and charged at him. The former Ren charged as well, but before his claws could rend him, he executed a deft flip, maneuvering over the terantatek and landing behind it. He again pulled from the gems in the pool and attempted the same thing he did to the rakghouls. The various jewels pierced it's flesh, but did not break through. It's skin was too tough. Milo needed to find another way to kill the beast, and fast.

Several trees were about the garden, some of them as wide as a man. With enough force, perhaps one of the trunks could skewer the abomination.

Sprinting through the garden, Milo made an effort to hide his presence from the terantatek momentarily before coming to rest behind the trunk of one of the larger trees. The beast lost sight of him for a moment, sniffing the air and howling at the disappearance of its prey.

"I hope this works," Milo muttered to himself.

With a concussive blast from his hand, the tree that was concealing him toppled in half. The breaking points were sharp and jagged. Perfect. Milo stood on the upper half of the tree and, with the Force, floated up on the wooden base so that he was standing on the levitating tree. The terantatek caught sight of him and howled. Milo beckoned the creature forward.

The abomination charged. Milo willed the tree to move forward towards it, the broken, jagged segment facing the beast. Both of them picked up speed. He aimed the trunk directly at it's abdominal section, then, at the last possible second, backflipped off. The wood pierced the beast, directly hitting it's chest with a sickening crack of bone and flesh.

The terantatek stopped, looking with rage at what had hit it. When it looked back up, it saw that Milo had a hand forward. Another concussive blast flew from him, flying towards the beast, specifically at the tree trunk. The force sent the broken tree through the terantatek, landing the shattered, bloody wood in the pond where the jewels rested. The beast looked at Milo, bewildered at what had occurred, and fell, spilling blood and organs all over the garden floor from the man-sized hole that clearly cut through both sides of its torso.

Drenched in sweat from the effort, Milo took a knee, the threat neutralized. He was tired, and the act had worn him out. After a moment, he stood back up, looking around the garden to see if another threat awaited him, using the Force to sustain his body from the fatigue that was threatening to take over.

[member="Kroran"]

 

[Kroran]

Suddenly the bodies of both the Terentatek and the Rakghouls would disappear the Garden returning to it's former beauty with not a single drop of blood left or battle damage around. Even the trees themselves that the former Ren had used as a weapon would return to their former spots almost as if nothing had happened, suddenly a foggy figure would appear in the spring. The figure was draped in white robes their face obscured by their hood, making them resemble a Sith Lord. "If you are hearing this message then you have defeated the monsters in the room. I congratulate you on your accomplishment on slaying the beasts, and now you may use this Garden to meditate to help you find Peace..." The figure said before it suddenly disappeared into the fog the sounds of birds chirping and the spring running calmly once again.

[member="Milo Ren"]

 

[Cecilia Wissen]

Cecilia noticed the light out of the corner of her eyes. That had not been there before. Presumably, it was illuminating something. Cecilia walked towards the spot on the floor where it appeared to be shining. Rounding a corner, she saw a podium with a book on it. She smiled. This was quite clearly a trap, but the book looked real enough. perhaps it was something truly spectacular. She picked up her pace running towards it.

The book was old and faded, clearly ancient, though the binding somehow seemed to remain relatively solid. She was about to open the book when she glanced at the cover. "Je'daii Holy Texts." Cecilia took several steps back, and looked around the chamber, as if she expected someone to be watching. "I am not amused by your lies," she hissed. She was certain this was trickery. It was too convenient in so many regards. Not only were there no Je'daii Holy Texts, not only would someone have called them something different, but she shouldn't even be able to read the books. The Je'daii Order became the Jedi Order thousands of years before the introduction of GBS.

She was angry, but her anger was not the corrupting madness of the Sith, nor was it shunned as would the Jedi. Her anger was a focus and a bringer of clarity. She sat down and began to meditate. Ignis had taught her a bit about how to use the force to control heat, and that was what she intended to do. Making the book hot enough to burn would have normally have taken her more than two hours, but she was sure that right here she could do it in less than half an hour. Anger to connect with the Force, discipline to use it. Still, her uncertainty was strong. What if these somehow were actual Je'daii texts?

"There is no ignorance, there is knowledge
There is no fear, there is power
I am the heart of the Force
I am the revealing fire of light
I am the mystery of darkness
In balance with chaos and harmony,
Immortal in the Force"

She whispered this to herself in her meditation. The Je'daii code. She knew now that this was what she had to do.

[member="Kroran"]

 

[Avin Starfire]

Tython​

Jedi Tomb​

Avin continued to walk further into the temple seeing an arena appear ahead of him upon exit of the corridor he surveyed the room. It resembled much of what he had seen already since they had split off. This, however, this was different in one way that worried him. This time coffins surrounded the arena in numbers higher than he would have liked.

Ever wary the Jedi Guardian stepped forward into the arena looking at the weapons before him. Was this a test? or perhaps a training ground of Jedi from long ago in the time before lightsabers when a war was fought with these weapons of intense vibration and sharpness.

Well if it is a test then he would pass it.

Avin picked up one of the vibrowswords from the wall and turned it over in his hands. It was much heavier than even his lightsaber, electrical current and vibration generator giving off an ever so slight humming sound as the electricity ran from hilt to tip allowing the weapon to fulfill its primary objective in dispatching the users' enemies swiftly and with the optimal amount of violence required. He had faced and seen a variety of weapons similar to this during his service to the Jedi order but never one of such craftsmanship or finery as this.

[member="Kroran"]

 

[Milo Ren]

Milo raised a sweaty eyebrow as the hooded Sith came out of the fog and spoke, then promptly disappeared. With his disappearance, the garden was made as it was before, with no trace of battle to be seen.

"What, no cash prize?", the former Ren muttered sarcastically. He did notice a distinct change in the air though. It was...calmer. The gentle tinkle of water. The plants moving in the slight breeze. It was a far cry to the blood-soaked killing field earlier.

Milo took a seat in the center of the garden, focusing internally. A sense of peace began to take hold of him. All the bad memories, him being a slave, falling to the Dark Side, even his failed relationship with [member="Zesiro"] didn't disappear, but he felt as if he had come to terms witg everything. There was no erasing the scars, both physical and emotional, but there was a way to look past them and move ahead.

Milo stood, and a single tear slid down his cheek and landed in the pool in the center of the garden. With that tear, all of his negative emotions went with it, and he was a new man.

"Now, to find the others."

[member="Kroran"]

 

[Milo Ren]

(OOC: Apologies for the double post.)

 

[Novos Kolski]

"Wait, others?"

Novan had seen everything from the threshold of the lush, verdant antechamber. The young Pantoran had followed the green light, taking a cue from the crystal around his neck and taking steps of faith further and further down the corridor. He had seen one of the foulest beasts he'd ever laid eyes on - leaps and bounds uglier than even Naboo's most ferocious predators - charge towards a man in a cloak. But most fantastically of all, Novan had seen the cloaked man rip a tree from the ground and use it to shred the monster. Everything after that was simply a blur; the Jedi hopeful was still wrapping his head around what he'd just seen unfold before his eyes. By the time he was in a place to grasp the sudden vanishing corpses and the vanishing spectre, most of his vocabulary had been ripped from him much in the same way the guts had been ripped from the ghostly beast.

Was this man a Jedi? And what of the others he'd mentioned? There were MORE? More monsters or more Jedi?

"Um..." Novan stammered, "what do you mean, others?"

[member="Milo Ren"]
[member="Kroran"]
[member="Avin Starfire"]
[member="Cecilia Wissen"]

 

[Kroran]

As the Scholar focused her anger towards the ancient book, it would suddenly burst into flames the book slamming open and the pages turning erratically a loud screaming following as the book was burned to a crisp. As the book was being burned a large ghostly black figure would rise from the book, it's claws extending out and trying to crush the Scholar who was trying to burn the ancient texts however before it could even touch her the figure would disappear back into it's pages letting out one last booming scream before completely disappearing. The large book would then break apart into several smaller chunks of char, the remnants of the texts falling towards the floor. Soon after a shrouded white figure would appear out of no where behind the Scholar "So you saw through my deception? I congratulate you on your accomplishment, what you had just burned was simply a blank book if you had opened it this room would have been flooded with many monsters...you certainly are quite knowledgeable. So i award you with this Library's vast knowledge." The shrouded white figure said before disappearing into the remains of the book.

[member="Cecilia Wissen"]

 

[Milo Ren]

Milo spun around quickly at the voice, preparing to send another wave of energy towards it, but relaxed when he saw that it was just a young Pantoran male with an expression of awe.

"You scared the kark out of me. How'd you get here? And who are you?"

The former Ren produced a handkerchief, wiping his brow with it, then ran a hand through his damp white hair, piercing green eyes locked on the blue-skinned alien.

"Others? No, there's no more abominations here. At least, I don't think there are. I meant the party I was travelling with."

He sensed an amount of raw Force potential in the Pantoran. Unfocused. It was likely he hadn't received any training. Perhaps that was why he was here.

[member="Novos Kolski"] [member="Kroran"] [member="Avin Starfire"] [member="Cecilia Wissen"]

 

[Kroran]

As the Jedi picked up the Vibrosword from the table, the many stone coffins that lined the arena would suddenly pop open clouds of dust pouring out. And in the clouds of dust we're several different figures, all facing towards the Jedi in the middle of the arena the figures would proceed to run towards him all with their own Vibroswords drawn out. And once they had exited the thick dust their true forms would be revealed as ancient battle droids all making various beeps and bloops as they swung their weapons at the Jedi. Each of them trying to stick their swords inside of his flesh, to make matters even worse the arena's exits we're closed off with large golden doors blocking them off.

[member="Avin Starfire"]

 

[SiRiDio]

-

 

[Cecilia Wissen]

Cecilia stood up and nodded at the ghost. He had said that the library was now hers, and that was a spectacular development. She would find a way to bring the books here back to the Silent archive, so that all the Je'daii could benefit from them. And if she did that, she would have completed the trial of Kaleth as well. Her first step towards being a ranger. She smiled to herself, then sprinted back up the passage, and towards the green gem hall. She had heard [member="Milo Ren"] go down that way, and she happened to have his lightsaber.

She was greeted by the sightof a beautiful garden. Milo, whose presence felt somehow different, was talking to some Force sensitive of some sort. she stopped next to them. "What's happening?" she asked, completely exhausted from her recent using of the Force,

[member="Kroran"] [member="Novos Kolski"]

 

[Milo Ren]

Now the scholar Je'daii was with the two in the garden. Good. Now they just had to find the Jedi and get out of here.

"First thing's first: my lightsaber. I'll take it back now."

Holding out his hand, he'd expect to have his weapon returned. Then again, it would probably be better to let her hold on to it for now. She could use the practice.

"Actually, hold on to it. You need it more than I do if anything else pops up. I had to fight a few rakghoul and a terantatek already. Keep your eyes peeled. Have you seen Avin yet?"

[member="Kroran"] [member="Cecilia Wissen"] [member="Novos Kolski"] [member="Avin Starfire"]

 

[Novos Kolski]

Rakghoul? Terentatek? Avin?

Novan was having a bit of trouble keeping up with it all. The first thing he'd noticed after the cloaked man greeted him was a Human woman entering the garden. And a rather nice-looking Human woman at that. Were it not for his utter confusion in the day's proceedings thus far, the hot-blooded Pantoran would have been tempted to put the moves on her. Novan wasn't quite sure what it was that made him feel it inappropriate about it; it was either the strange new feeling in his gut or the prospect of ghost beasts springing out of the walls to devour their bodies in grisly and grotesque fashion. One of the two.

The next thing Novan picked up on was the cloaked man mention a lightsaber. Still the prime suspect in the melting of the temple's lock, the blue boy's yellow eyes lit up at the mention of the word. He'd seen what the cloaked man had done without one. The prospect of seeing him with one made Novan so excited that he almost entirely forgot about the vanishing monstrosities earlier. To see a Jedi - a fully-realized, genuine Jedi Knight - the thought was almost too much to bear. And on his first real outing on his journey, to boot! Novan couldn't believe his luck. Sure, what he'd read of the Jedi Order led him to believe that the Jedi had no interest or understanding of the concept of luck, but what else could it possibly be? The sheer -

all facing towards the Jedi in the middle of the arena the figures would proceed to run towards him all with their own Vibroswords drawn out

The mental backlash from the sudden, crystal-clear thought in his mind's eye almost knocked the young Pantoran clear off his feet. In one moment, he'd been listening to the cloaked man refuse the return of his lightsaber despite hoping the cute woman would return it to him anyway. And in the next - in a moment so quickly here and so quickly gone - Novan had seen dark enemies surround and attack another man in a room bathed in red light and enshrined by countless weapons, as clearly and as vividly as he saw the two Jedi before him now. Another room in this temple, and another companion in the cloaked man's party? His future Master, light-years away? Novan understood little about visions. But the Pantoran had never had one before in almost twenty standard years of life. That his first one came in this place and at this time was no coincidence.

"I..." Novan said, almost stammering, "...actually, I think I just did. This room here is green, is there a red one?"

[member="Milo Ren"]
[member="Cecilia Wissen"]
[member="Kroran"]
[member="Avin Starfire"]

 

[Cecilia Wissen]

Cecilia considered for a moment, before handing the lightsaber back to the man. "Well, from the looks of things, whatever you encountered is dead, so I don't see any reason why I would need it. I presume the ghost has appeared for you too, which means the only hall left is the vibrosword lined one," at this she turned to the pantoran, who seemed to be very interested in looking at both her and Milo, and not quite sure which one he should prioritize. She would admit it was rather cute, but she wasn't in the right mood. Anyways, looking at him, she continued, "which is the red crystaled hall, and the one which I never intend to go down. So for all purposes, this tomb now holds no dangers to me, I would presume."

She didn't know it, but there were kyber crystals down the hall that the man had left. Though if she did know, she would be excited, it was up to the tomb and the crystal to determine whether or not she deserved one. Even if she didn't, she wouldn't really be disappointed. Completion of Kaleth had been far more success than she had been expecting on the onset of the trip. Hoping for that and a Kyber crystal would really be a bit much.

OOC:

Spoiler

I am so sorry, I didn't notice Ren's reply and thought I wasn't up! Anyways, all good now. [member="Kroran"] , I'm leaving it up to you whether or not one of the crystals will be for Cecilia, I couldn't decide. Choose whichever option you think will make a better story, though I'm leaning slightly on the side of not.

[member="Novos Kolski"]
[member="Milo Ren"]
[member="Avin Starfire"]

 

[Avin Starfire]

It had been within seconds from picking the ancient bladed weapon up that the droids seem to buzz to life and come charging his way through a haze of kicked up dust and dirt now falling back towards earth as a cloak for the droids. Their own weapons came point first for the Jedi Guardian in a unison of blades and weaponry of overwhelming force and leaving little space for error.

Avin snapped his hand forward opening his palm at first to send a wave of telekinetic force energy careening for the center most of the eight droids flying at speed for him. Two of them caught the centermost power of the blast being thrown back through the dust into the arena wall with a scrape of metal and stone as they connected with the wall. The other two in the center was thrown to ground skidding on the floor yet soon recovering and moving back towards him for the killing blow.

Four other droids had escaped the blast of force energy and now came at both of his flanks in pairs of two. Avin allowed them to close into weapons range and anticipating their swings before pushing off of the ground with the force and throwing himself upwards allowing the two closest to him to exchange weapon blows with each other disabling one of the left flankers and causing mobility issues for the other now a vibroblade sticking through the left servo motor. On the way down from the vertical leap the Jedi pressed his weapon out to catch the top of the other left-hand battle droid bisecting it to where a human's abdominal would be causing it to whine before falling silent and still. The next strike caught Avin off guard from the wounded droid and sliced clean across his torso in an upwards diagonal drawing blood and tearing the fabric, Avin retorted with a strike through the blade arm before decapitating the Droid.

His chest burned with pain as the white robes of a Jedi Guardian started to take on a tinge of blood red. Even as he gazed down at the wound for a moment it was within seconds that the remaining flanking droid charged forward backed by the two other battle droids now recovered from being thrown. Avin blocked the first strike falling into his preferred stance of Djem-So even with the much heavier Vibroblade the technique was much similar to the Lightsaber. The next to strikes were equally blocked with one parry of Avin's weapon being held vertically to defend his left side. As Avin continued to deflect weapon strike after weapons strike his opportunity to counter opened for capitalization. His own weapon parried two of the opposing blades together allowing him to disarm and destroy the leftmost enemy in a riposte and stab combo. The final two moved back to finish Avin as the trail of crimson now accompanied the arena floor yet were forced away again by another slam of telekinetic energy this time landing with more grace the Droids clambered back up charging once more.

Avin closed his eyes and focused on the pain and anger within him as well as the tranquility of the light side around him to form the balance taught so long ago by his master before. The combined forces came clashing together as he raised a singular hand to the droids and pulled inwards on the force allowing his fingers to close inwards to his palm and sending out a singularity of force energy causing each battle droid to start breaking and tearing as his force crush took hold and slowly pushed them to the floor in a wreck of twisted metal before dropping to his own knees panting from the use of such a technique.

Avin used what little strength he had left to force heal the worst of the wound and form a mismatch bandage from his torn robe before closing his eyes to a meditative position and focusing in on the force to recover his energy.

[member="Kroran"]

 

[Novos Kolski]

"Wait, what?"

Novan could barely believe his ears as the brown-haired woman returned the cloaked man's lightsaber to him, letting her words mull around in his head for a moment. Cloaky had given his lightsaber to Cutie, which told Novan that they had come into this tomb together, or at the very least met up inside; either way, he trusted her enough to lend him the very symbol of his order and his connection to the Force. That in turn implied that she had some idea how to use the sacred weapon, it'd be almost laughably irresponsible to entrust it to her otherwise. Final conclusion; she was a Jedi herself.

Or at least she pretended to be.

"Let me get this right," Novan started, his stance and tone becoming more aggressive, "your teammate here just took out a slew of monsters with a kriffin' tree while you've been dancing around goodness only knows where, one of the other guys might be in serious trouble, and your response is 'better him than me'? Some Jedi you are, lady!

"C'mon," Novan said, looking at the robed figure, "if she won't help you get to him, I will."

[member="Avin Starfire"]
[member="Cecilia Wissen"]
[member="Milo Ren"]
[member="Kroran"]

 

[Cecilia Wissen]

Cecilia's immediate emotional response to [member="Novos Kolski"] was a huge surge of anger. But in the brief time it took her to consider what nearby object she was going to hit him with, she was able to decide to not do that, and instead, spat out a small tirade at the pantoran, although she calmed down somewhat with every word she spoke.

"Neither I nor Milo are Jedi, and you better remember that. I am a Je'daii, and I don't know what in the galaxy [member="Milo Ren"] calls himself. Furthermore, you have no idea what I had to deal with, do you now? For all you know, I could have killed ten times as many beasts as he did. Fortunately, I did not have to, as I managed to overcome the blue trial with my wit, and not by fighting. Which brings me to my final points. We all went down these halls knowing that something might happen to us, and so far each of us has overcome our own challenges. [member="Avin Starfire"] surely faces his own, and I have faith enough that that Jedi will pass. And even if I thought it would be appropriate to help, I still would not unless his life was in danger. I am a scholar Mr. Kolski, not a warrior. I am not good at fighting. Just like you are not good at recognizing inconvenient truths."

Cecilia paused for a few seconds, then told the pantoran "I'm sorry that was a bit much. Milo, dear, do go check on our acquaintance Avin, would you?" The second sentence was incredibly uncharacteristic, both in its tone and verbal content. "I'll stay here with Novos, who will consider the fact that what he says next to me could result in me dropping a large number of sticks on his head."

Cecilia took a few steps towards the downed tree, and started levitating sticks with the Force, not so much to make a point as because she-- well to make a point and for practice. Though mostly for practice.

[member="Kroran"]