The Tomb of Jedi Knight Kroran

[Milo Ren]

Milo shook his head slightly as Cecilia returned his lightsaber, but took it back anyways as he listened to the two talk. It seemed the Pantorian was incredulous that the scholar didn't seem too keen on returning for Avin. No matter. He smirked as they bickered, slightly amused at the infighting. He should've brought some snacks.

"I'm nothing. Sects tie you down to an ideal. I serve no master."

The former Ren cocked a single, white eyebrow in Novos' direction before returning to the more important task at hand. While part of him wanted to just leave Avin behind, he knew that helping him was the right thing to do. Turning to Cecilia after she virtually gave him an order, the former Ren decided to make a sarcastic quip.

"You're rather adorable when you get worked up. All right, Blue, come with me. Let's go find Avin."

With that, Milo stepped off, lightsaber in hand, in the direction of the red hallway.

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

(OOC: Agh, Cecilia and I posted at nearly the same time. Edited to reflect her dialogue.)

 

[Cecilia Wissen]

Cecilia stuck her tongue out at Milo. "Fine, if you're gonna be that way, I'll go too." She said grinning. She was still surrounded by an ever increasing number of treeshards.

[member="Milo Ren"]

 

[Kroran]

As the last droid was crushed into submission by the Jedi, the room suddenly fell silent similar to the large Garden outside of the Tomb's entrance. With not even the sparks of the severed wires from the ancient droids making a single sound, it's almost as if the Jedi had entered a completely different plane of existence. However suddenly a shrouded figure appeared from thin air, obscured by a thick fog that covered his identity with the only clue to his true identity being his shadowy outline. The figure would walk up to the meditating Jedi before sitting in his own meditating pose. "If you are hearing this message then you have defeated the Droids that we're protecting my Tomb...these Droids we're the most highly skilled in Vibrosword fighting in their days they we're considered top of the line...So for you to have the strength to take them down you have shown me the power of the Force you have. For your reward you may take a special lightsaber that i once used during my days of the Old Republic." The Figure said before suddenly a podium would rise from the floor knocking a disabled droid off revealing a pure silver lightsaber, with complicated engravings lining the hilt. The inside of the saber glowed a bright white color and if ignited would let out a calming hum.

[member="Avin Starfire"]

[member="Milo Ren"]

[member="Cecilia Wissen"]

 

[Avin Starfire]

The wound and the pain that seemed to accompany it started to pulsate in a numbing sensation as his focus and meditation sealed the wound and started the healing process. Avin had forgotten how long he had been meditating yet as his senses came back to him and his perception of the room had shifted vastly. The once whirring and noisy sparring droids had fallen silent. The room around him made no noise and gave no breeze from the air to brush against his face. Only when his eyes opened did he see the fog appear from nothing in a heavy blanket of white and grey. Its sudden appearence ominous yet calming to the wounded Guardian.

Deep from within the fog came the figure, his outline a shadow and his features non-existent but for a calming voice that emitted from within after it had sat in front of him. The words were pronounced and deep. Authoritative but calm. The voice described the events having taken place before revealing itself to be a recorded message. The latter part of the figure's message entailed a weapon used by it in a time described as the old republic. To Avin, the old republic was a common phrase and yet this temple was older than Avin had seen before meaning to refer to a republic of this time as 'old' it must have been truly ancient.

The podium gracefully came up in-front of Avin the weapon atop it shining in a graceful light, its beautiful silver hilt almost glowed as it showed off intricate carvings as old as the temple itself. The Jedi stood up to the beams of light and peaceful noise to walk forward to the podium.

Avin's upper and lower torse felt the warm air brush past as they had been torn away as bandage material. The cuts on his chest and face from metal shavings seemed to stop hurting as his hand came down to grasp the weapon's hilt.

Upon picking up the weapon he could feel the precision and power from within it, the kyber crystal deep within calling to him through the force. Avin let his thumb slide down the impeccable hilt to the switch upon pressing the blade ignited its snow-like blade. The humming was a calm and smooth sound compared to the usual violent crackle of energy from the Lightsabers of today. As he moved the hilt the weapon glided effortlessly through the air as if one with his hand and arm.

Upon turning the weapon off, the Jedi turned to the corridor he had entered through and started to walk down the hall of weapons and Armor from a time long before and that would be here in a time long awaiting. His pace was slow and stumbled as the fight had taken much of his strength and stamina to maintain. He thought back to the droids for a moment as they had been far stronger than even the most effective of enemies he had yet to face. If they had been force resistant... Avin brushed the thought away as he came to the end of the hallway and saw a familiar outline.

[member="Kroran"] [member="Milo Ren"]

 

[Novos Kolski]

Novan had no idea what the cute Human woman had said beyond some weird pronunciation of Jedi. If he was being honest with himself, he'd tuned her out all but entirely; there was a possibility that in the next hall over, someone in their party was being torn to bloody shreds, and her response was to go into a full-bore lecture on the difference between a Jedi and a Jee-Die? Was this woman for real? The Pantoran had spent her entire long-winded diatribe trying to find the words for just how utterly, inanely wrong she was on just about every given matter she'd brought up, but when he - finally - got his opening, Novan couldn't help but find that he just didn't have the words anymore.

It was just as well; the cloaked man said he'd go, and Novan wasted absolutely no time in following. And he'd not been following long when he saw a silhouette of a man emerge near the end of a corridor, bathed in an eerie red light.

"That your guy?"

[member="Kroran"]
[member="Avin Starfire"]
[member="Milo Ren"]
@Cecilia Wilson

 

[Kroran]

When all of the members of the group made it back out to the main hall of the tomb, suddenly the wall behind the three doors would shake and tremble slowly for a few interrupted minutes. With clouds of dust and small debris falling from the ceiling landing atop their heads and onto the clean floor below, The wall would proceed to open the walls of the Tomb shaking and trembling around in response to it dropping more chunks of gold and other debris to the ground. Eventually the wall would fully open revealing another large room with three large crates on each side of the room all locked firmly with different codes. Two large statues of Jedi Knights holding their sabers out towards one another creating a X shape over a Cryo stasis chamber, and in it a red skinned pure blood Sith dressed from head too toe in pure white robes their hands held close to their chest. Their face had several silver pieces of jewelry on the bridge of his nose which perfectly compliments his white robes making his red skin stand out more.

Several scriptures could be seen in scripted on the sides of the Cryo chamber, again written in the ancient Sith language. Possibly instructions as to how to awaken the ancient Jedi knight, or maybe how to open the crates on the sides of the Tomb which could possibly lead to riches or not?

[member="Milo Ren"]

[member="Cecilia Wissen"]

[member="Avin Starfire"]

[member="Novan Kolski"]

 

[Milo Ren]

"Yes, that's him."

Milo strode towards Avin, looking over him to ensure that he wasn't in need of first aid. He wasn't terribly wounded, but like himself, he was tired and worn out from whatever trial he had to face.

"You all right?"

He had hardly gotten his question out when the Temple began to rumble. Large chunks of the building began to fall, and the former Ren had to dodge pieces of debris multiple times before it stopped shaking, revealing a Sith in cryostatis, two statues, and three mysterious crates. How odd.

"Wait. No one go near the room yet. It could be another trap."

Milo didn't know if he had the energy for another fight. Slaying the beasts in the garden had taken a toll on him. What if there were more tests?

"If we do proceed, it should be done with extreme caution."

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

 

[Novos Kolski]

"Oh, what in the hell..."

The reveal of the red-skinned man seemed to rip the breath away from the Pantoran interloper. It was by far the most beautiful room in the temple that he'd come across thus far, even including the lush garden he'd just stepped out of. But while the hieroglyphs on the walls and the statues - themselves seemingly untouched by time - seemed to ring out with splendor unheard of since the days of the old Republic, something about the scene bothered Novan. He wasn't a biologist. He wasn't a scientist. And he absolutely wasn't a doctor. But if this was a tomb, then why was the glass on his coffin - itself in a humid temple based on a jungle world - frosted over? Novan puzzled over the tableau before him, shooting a glance towards the injured Human to make sure he hadn't keeled over before eyeing the three crates surrounding the cryogenic sarcophagus. Novan's mind wandered as his yellow eyes passed over each one in turn. The epiphany hit him somewhere between the second and third crates. It was simple. So simple, in fact, that he felt like a fool for not considering it earlier. And so far afield that he thought himself mad.

Novan's eyes focused back on the jungle. He remembered how - impossibly - he ran for what could have been miles without needing to stop for rest or breath. He remembered how the jungle itself seemed more vibrant as his body opened up to what he could only assume was the Force. He remembered the cloaked man ripping through monsters with a tree held by little more than his mind; more importantly, in hindsight, he remembered that something about the vanishing beasts felt somewhat off. And he remembered that in addition to seeing the injured Human in his flash of a vision, he could almost feel the injuries he'd sustained. Novan's epiphany flooded from his mind down to every cell in his body, a realization that he'd read about and seen but never understood until right then. The Force existed where there was life. All life. Any life.

On a hunch, the Force Sensitive tried to reach out, attempting to recapture what he'd felt on the mad dash through Tython's thick foliage on his way to the tomb. The energy he'd unknowingly felt all his life, yet only just recently recognized. The power that seemed to permeate their surroundings, especially on this holy world. Slowly, Novan began to feel something. The strange something was rife in the air. Strong in him. Stronger in his companions.

...strong in the red man.

"Oh..." Novan half-muttered as the day's second realization slapped him in the face, "...oh, I've got a bad feeling about this."

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

 

[Cecilia Wissen]

Cecilia felt rather bad about pretty much saying that [member="Avin Starfire"] was fine, now that he wasn't. She had no idea how to help him. She turned to [member="Milo Ren"]. "Do you have any medical knowledge?" she asked. "Because we should probably get Avin patched up a bit first," From his prior dialogue, she was sure the answer was "no".

It seemed that right now she was Avin's main advocate, as [member="Novan Kolski"] seemed a bit preoccupied with an apparent feeling of dread. Using the Force, she pulled a vibroblade to her hand. It had been the lightest looking one she had seen, but its blade was still far heavier than the weightless lightsaber. She turned to Novan. "Fancy that, we actually agree on something."

Then Cecilia proposed her plan to them: "If Avin is in the best state we can get him in, I propose we float those crates over and cut them open. Anything money related, you guys can take, it's knowledge I want. If anything goes wrong, we should probably just run. Depending on what happens, if something does happen, I'm on the best state, so I should be able to buy you enough time, and still be able to catch up with Force speed."

[member="Kroran"]

 

[Novos Kolski]

"Okay, scholar lady," Novan cut in, snapping out of his reverie with a voice and tone that could rival the woman's own in sheer condescension, "that's all good and well, but if this guy is running the show I don't think running is gonna help that much. If your databanks have something that can translate those runes, that'd probably be a little more helpful than 'let me play out my fantasies of Jee-Dye martyrdom', don't you think so? Leave the fighting decisions to the people that, you know, actually fight. Can you do that, -know-it-all?"

While Novan's words were harsh, they came from a place of concern. The Pantoran hadn't been here for the entirety of the tomb's outright insane escapades, having caught only the tail-end of Cloaky's battle with the ghost monsters and seen the aftermath of "Avin's" battle with the enemies in the red corridor. But between the red-skinned alien's reveal and the obvious trap that awaited them, Novan knew that whatever was waiting couldn't be good.

Beyond the obvious, a few things still tugged at the back of the young man's mind. For one, while Cloaky's battle with the beasts had been a terrifying sight to behold, no harm had befallen him. Scholar Lady was similarly untouched. Of the three, only Avin had any injuries to show for their time there, and that could only be expected in a tomb that was both laden with treasure and laden with weapons, to say nothing of the fact that something was controlling things behind the scenes. And that something led Novan to the other problem he was feeling. The red man was alive in that cryo chamber, unless his admittedly small grasp on what the Force could actually do was wrong. Building an elaborate tomb, rife with riches, only to not actually be dead? Something about the very premise just didn't make sense. If the Tomb Master was to remain alive, why go through all the trouble of the cryostasis? If he was a Sith, why would he be buried on Tython? And if he was evil...

...why were any of them still alive?

"...hey, scholar lady," Novan said, his tone a hushed whisper and a far cry from the combative tone he'd taken with her earlier, "what would happen if we just woke him up?"

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

 

[Milo Ren]

"Avin, stay alive. I have a medical droid aboard my ship. If you're wounded, it'll patch you up."

Milo again watched the debacle between the blue one and Cecilia, this time with a grim look on him. Fighting would get them nowhere. In fact, it would only divide the group. Before it could escalate further, the former Ren spoke up, his voice filled with power and authority.

"We don't know anything about the man in there. What I can tell you, though, is that he's strong in the Force. Projecting yourself, conscious or unconscious, is an incredibly difficult feat. If he's responsible for all the troubles we've ran into here...we shouldn't release him. Unless someone here can actually translate the texts, we shouldn't mess with anything here at all. I was an archeologist, but this is older than anything I've ever studied."

He then turned to Cecilia and Novan and spoke in a serious tone.

"You two need to stop bickering. If we're going to do anything, it has to be together. Now, whether or not the Sith in cryo is friend or foe...I'm not sure. I don't sense any malevolence, but it's still a risky move to wake him up. All I'm saying is that whatever we do, we must do together."

Crossing his arms, Milo would look at the group and wait to see what their input was.

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

 

[Avin Starfire]

While his silence and wounds were prominent enough to communicate Avin's issues at the current however even as the others spoke he was using the time to regain his thoughts and mental position. However, the wounds themselves did not make that any easier had he been a lesser man Avin would have no doubt met a much worse fate. The group around him would see a translucent sphere of blue hue form around Avin as his eyes closed and he slumped into the wall before pressing both hands down onto the chest laceration he had received from the Ancient droid's vibroblades. As his eyes opened the hue seemed to fade the worst of the wounds had faded or at least stabilized.

As he spoke his tone was calm and much quieter than before the hint of pain now stifling his charismatic properties. His body seemed to stand up slightly taller and now supporting himself he took in the surroundings.

"Don't worry Milo I don't plan on dying just yet! But you do have a point, if we are to progress forward we must do it united."

[member="Milo Ren"]
[member="Novan Kolski"]
[member="Cecilia Wissen"]
[member="Kroran"]

 

[Cecilia Wissen]

"Oh, he knows Force healing, how convenient." Cecilia was rather impressed, and made a mental note to look into the technique when she got back. "Anyways, you're right. About both things." She shouldn't be letting Novan's childishness bother her, though it admittedly was. And they needed more information before doing anything with this new chamber.

"I'm hardly trying to play martyr, I happen to value my life quite highly, but logically, having the least injured person guard makes sense. I think the bigger question is, do we even bother? This seems pretty risky, and I can't really think of anything we could gain from it. And while this chamber has me dying from curiosity, I don't know if it's worth the risk..." While she said this she was spinnning the vibro-blade she was holding from the point on the ground. She was not a fan of the weight.

[member="Avin Starfire"] | [member="Milo Ren"] | [member="Novan Kolski"]

 

[Novos Kolski]

Novan tried to hold back the bile; much as the cute Human girl was starting to grate his nerves, there was no denying that she had a point. There was a risk in opening the cryo casket, and not a small one at that. There was the possibility of the crates being traps. There was the possibility of the tomb collapsing on them. There was the possibility that Novan - a young Pantoran man with no formal training and hadn't truly touched the Force in all its majesty until little more than an hour ago - was completely and entirely wrong, especially considering that Cloaky, Fighty, and Little Miss Brainy were urging far more caution.

But she'd also mentioned wanting knowledge. And that she was dying from curiosity...

"You came this far," Novan said to the yet-unnamed Human woman, "got this close. You wanted knowledge, you said it yourself. Me, I don't have any training. Any real knowledge."

Novan paused, taking a few small steps towards the cryogenic chamber containing the red-skinned ancient alien. Although he was a Pantoran, he'd grown up and been educated on Naboo. Politics and oration were as fundamental to Naboo education as mathematics would be on Mon Calamari, or as important as astronavigation would be in flight school. She wanted knowledge. He wanted to wake the Jedi up. What the other two wanted - beyond a stiff drink, if Avin was any indication - was up in the air, but the blue-skinned youth had always been quick on his feet. Novan could be a charming bastard when he wanted to be, and as he inched towards the sarcophagus he dialed it up as far as it would go. He just hoped that the telepathic powers of the Jedi, Jee-Dye, or whatever they wanted to call themselves were exaggerated.

"What I'm seeing here is an opportunity to get that knowledge right from the source."

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