Private Well of All Souls

[Ishani Dinn]

Alisteri got the brunt of the thing’s assault, but they were soon lashing out at Ishani as well. Her blade flashed as it sliced through the tendrils. No blood dripped from the severed limbs, but a foul smell rose up from the deep—a miasma of rage and loathing.

“What is this thing?” she called out, still fending off the tendrils. To her shock, the thing answered.

“Nu buti mirtis! Nu buti tave ardyti ir tave derrinos!”

Unfortunately, she couldn’t speak Sith. Her danger sense screamed just before the rumble of rattling rock signaled that other stone slabs in the chamber were being breached. More tendrils shot from the depths, snaking towards the two explorers like the lashes of a whip.

Darth Strosius​

 

[Darth Strosius]

“Nu buti mirtis! Nu buti tave ardyti ir tave derrinos!”

Alisteri wasn't very fluent in Sith, especially when spoken instead of written, but he was able to understand enough. "Apparently it believes itself to be death. How original."

The brief reprieve from the tendrils that he had carved through didn't last long, just enough for him to get back up on his feet, soon more were lashing out at him both from the stone slab before him and from the others around the room. They were fairly easy to slash in half thankfully, but they just kept coming. If they couldn't figure out a way to close the slabs or escape the room then they may be overwhelmed.

Sooner rather than later too.

"We need a way out of here and fast! Closing the lids doesn't seem viable anymore." He side stepped a tendril that had shot out to grab his leg and stomped it under his foot as he kept hacking the approaching tendrils each time they made a thrust towards him. "This is some sort of trap or a test, any knowledge about the Lost Tribe coming to mind?"

Ishani Dinn

 

[Ishani Dinn]

“How about going back the way we came?” Ishani shouted the most obvious suggestion she could think of. The stairwell they had descended beckoned.

Until it stopped beckoning, when the hatch door slid shut, sealing them in the dark tendril-infested cavern. Ishani uttered a series of unprintable profanities.

Alisteri hypothesized that it was all a test or a trap, then asked her a question. “I’m not a historian!” she exclaimed. “I’m not even an archaeologist! All I know about the Lost Tribe is that I read on Wookieepedia—!”

A tendril managed to wrap itself around her ankle, knocking her off her feet and lifting her in the air. Hanging upside down, she slashed at the vine with her blade, very glad at that moment that she had endeavored to work out more and get back into physical shape, or else she might not have even been able to reach it. The tendril snapped off, dropping her onto the ground with a thud. Ignoring the teeth-grinding pain of the impact, she scrambled back to her feet. Her flashlight had been flung away during the struggle, the beam sputtering and dying.

The only remaining light source came from Alisteri’s lightsaber. Ishani was left in the dark, forced to rely upon the Force to “see”. She was very close to panicking, but kept her wits about her just barely.

“Another panel—somewhere along the walls?” she sputtered. “That’s all I can think of—besides trying to reason with this Death thing!”

Darth Strosius​

 

[Darth Strosius]

Retreating to more familiar ground and hopefully getting out of the range of the tendrils in the process sounded like a good idea, even if it was only to buy more time, but unfortunately the ruin seemed to eliminate that possibility. He muttered curses through clenched teeth as he fought off the ever-encroaching tendrils, unable to try and stop the door given his engagement.

They would need another solution then, and fast.

Alisteri had been hoping that Ishani would provide some special or unforeseen insight that would help them out next, but that idea didn't pan out either. His own sources on the Lost Tribe were scattered at best so he had little idea of what test this would be to them.

Perhaps it wasn't even a test at all, just a trap.

Regardless he didn't intend to die to a bunch of strange black tendrils in some old Sith ruin, so he kept slashing. Right as he was about to try and cross the room to help get Ishani down, she freed herself at the cost of her light. He did move a bit closer to hopefully provide some vision with his blade, but ensuring that he wasn't snatched up in the same manner was his priority.

"I like the panel idea!" He ducked down to avoid a tendril that went for his face, quickly cutting it in half before it could wrap around his head. "What about stabbing into the stone slabs these things are coming from? Sith do enjoy a good direct solution."

Ishani Dinn

 

[Ishani Dinn]

Stabbing the slabs? What would that—ah, feth it! “You’re the one with the lightsaber, you do the stabbing stones. I’ll keep the tendrils off you. That work?”

Ishani hoped so. What other options did they have?

Darth Strosius​

 

[Darth Strosius]

"Deal!" His free hand crackled with lightning as he summoned up his strength, fending off tendrils as he started moving forward to the first opened stone. The closer he got the more he was surrounded by lashing and grabbing tendrils, each trying to knock him off his feet or render him defenseless. All he needed was to get to the edge of the slab, and they wouldn't stop him.

With a flourish of his lightsaber followed by a wide and wild swing forward he leapt towards the stone. He landed on the edge and had to quickly balance himself before a tendril pulled him into the depths below.

Alisteri gritted his teeth and pointed his hand, still crackling with Sith lightning, right into the origin of the tendril mass. "Mrias Zveris!" And with that he let loose the most deadly storm that he could muster from his palm.

Ishani Dinn

 

[Ishani Dinn]

Ishani commenced her campaign of hacking and slashing. While she wasn’t a great fighter by any means, this thing was not a trained duelist. The tendrils were purely intent on grabbing her and Alisteri, not engaging in fancy moves and flourishes.

Her combat against them was crude and dirty, but she succeeded in keeping most of them away from Alisteri. The closer he got to the slab, however, the more intense and difficult it became to fend them off.

Luckily, Alisteri unleashed some Force lightning upon the center of the writhing mass. It proved effective. The air filled with the stench of burning flesh, and the tendrils slithered back into the ground, retreating to nurse their wounds.

There was no way of knowing how long the reprieve would last, however. They still needed to get out of there. Ishani stretched out with the Force, relying on it to observe what her other senses could not perceive. The sealed-off entrance, the charred monster beneath the chamber, and… a hidden passage off to the side.

Concentrated application of the Force caused the secret passageway to reveal itself. Unfortunately, it led down rather than up. Ishani grimaced.

“I don't suppose you know a way to get the entrance open again?” she asked. "At this point, I think I'd rather just head back up to the surface, call this whole thing off. I've got a family, kids..."

Darth Strosius​

 

[Darth Strosius]

Watching the singed and injured tendrils retreat was far more satisfying than it had any right to be, especially given the burn in his arms from swinging his lightsaber all around for the past few minutes of combat. While he would've enjoyed a moment to catch his breath and rest himself from the struggle, as he assumed Ishani would also, he knew better than to wait around.

Whilst she was reaching out with the Force, Alisteri busied himself with hefting the slab lid back onto the stone as fast as he could manage. It admittedly wasn't an effortless task even with his Sangnir strength, but he was able to close one of the tendrils' avenue of attack for the moment.

It wouldn't last of course, as the lid had been slid off effortlessly once already, but anything that could buy a few extra seconds was better than nothing.

He looked up as he heard the movement of a door, glancing at Ishani curiously before looking to the now open passageway. A new one of course. The exit evidently wasn't keen on opening back up just yet.

The sight drew a sigh from him and he idly wondered if he could try and cut through the stone that blocked their exit to allow them escape. Even if he could it would take time to get a large enough hole for them to get through, and one could only guess when the tendrils would return. "As much as I wouldn't care to delve into the bowels of this place given that thing is still around somewhere...I believe we have no other choice."

The masked man gestured back at the closed exit as he began to approach the new open staircase. "Unfortunately, if I know anything about Sith ruins then that door is not opening until we complete whatever trial lays ahead. Probably killing that beast in the process if I had to guess." He looked down the stairs with caution, reigniting his lightsaber to provide some light for Ishani when they went down.

"Besides, one only guards something if there's something of value worth acquiring. Come and lets see what they hid with a monster."

Ishani Dinn

 

[Ishani Dinn]

"... I believe we have no other choice."

Feth.

Ishani let Alisteri take the lead as they headed down the stairs, which proved to be quite steep. As they descended, the air grew stifling and hot.

Eventually they reached the bottom. Another chamber, this one definitely man-made. It was completely featureless, lacking even a door—and the moment Ishani and Alisteri took their last steps, the stairwell sealed off behind them, trapping them inside.

Ishani pressed her lips together tightly—then gasped when she turned around to find herself staring at a ghost.

The figure’s body was slightly transparent, as if they were barely able to maintain corporeality, and though there was some luminescence to them, it was very faint. They wore robes, a hood, and a mask that obscured everything except their eyes, yet Ishani could tell that the ghost was female—a suspicion confirmed when the spirit spoke with a woman’s voice, raspy with disuse.

“No one has been here for centuries. Why have you come?”

Darth Strosius​

 

[Darth Strosius]

The strange heat that seemed to appear suddenly and intensify as they trekked down the stairs did not go unnoticed by Alisteri, and he couldn't help but be reminded of both natural heat vents and molten rivers as well as the body heat of a large creature. None of those were desirable.

The chamber at the bottom of the stairs was seemingly empty, even lacking another visible door, and it made for an unsettling sight. He had been expecting a monster's lair or some form of puzzle room, even a tomb. The door closing behind them was something that he had expected however, merely shaking his head in frustration as he looked around for another hidden passage to open.

And then Ishani gasped.

He turned back and visibly jumped at the appearance of the apparition. The clothing itself he didn't recognize, but the style was certainly that of a Sith. Even without a full mask. Out of instinct he leveled his lightsaber at the ghost, as if it would do any good, as she spoke to the pair. He had always been skeptical of such stories and myths like ghosts, but as his holocron loved to remind him, those gifted with the Force had a habit of staying well past their body's functioning state.

"We..." The masked man paused to clear his throat, and the tremble in his words, before continuing. "We are here to learn of the Lost Tribe of Sith."

Ishani Dinn

 

[Ishani Dinn]

"The Lost Tribe are all dead," the ghost snapped. "I was the last of them. Anyone who claims to be a Tribesman is a pretender." Growing more agitated, she stabbed a finger at the two trespassers. "You're here to plunder this place. What do you think we have that could possibly be of any use to you?"

"Uh, well..." Ishani began haltingly. "I was hoping... you might have some forgotten knowledge just waiting to be learned again?"

"Knowledge?" The ghost threw back her head and laughed. "We were runaway slaves, uneducated, who established ourselves as gods over the primitive natives. We fought among ourselves, squabbling for power, for millennia. Yet we promised ourselves and our children that one day we would conquer the galaxy. The only knowledge we have to offer is how destructive our lack of wisdom was. We failed. Now we are nothing."

Darth Strosius

 

[Darth Strosius]

Alisteri glanced between Ishani and the ghost as they spoke, slowly lowering his lightsaber as he listened. It wouldn't be of much use anyway. A ghost can't die twice after all, not that he knew of anyhow. His eyes narrowed as the ghost dismissed their search for knowledge and let out a sigh. "So that's it then? You had the chance to live for the Dark Side and you wasted it killing each other?"

To say he was disappointed would be an understatement. He had come all this way and went through getting grabbed by tendrils just to learn that these Sith had turned on one another like he had seen done in the Sith Empire.

A waste, it was all just a waste. "I'm guessing you're not going to let us go easily either? Something about us being cursed to remain with the dead since we sought the dead or something like that?" It was a reasonable assumption, especially given the typical Sith attitudes towards being disturbed whilst being alive.

Ishani Dinn

 

[Ishani Dinn]

"I'm guessing you're not going to let us go easily either? Something about us being cursed to remain with the dead since we sought the dead or something like that?"

"Please, uh, please don't do that," Ishani muttered.

The ghost shook her head. "No. But I do have a task for you to do before you leave."

A hidden panel in the wall behind the apparition slid open, revealing... not stairs, for once, but a mausoleum containing a single black sarcophagus.

"It's not a coffin," the ghost said. "It's an oubliette. The man inside it has been held in suspended animation for over seven hundred years. If you open it, you can leave this place."

Blinking, Ishani turned to Alisteri, then back to the ghost. "What's the catch?"

"There is none. He won't have any interest in you once he's out. You'll go your way and he'll go his."

"Who is this guy? Why was he put in an oubliette in the first place?"

"That's none of your concern. Either free him, or stay here and rot."

Darth Strosius

 

[Darth Strosius]

A sigh of relief left him as the ghost shook her head, but tension remained as he heard something else open up. Evidently their task before they could leave. It wasn't what he expected however, instead of some puzzle or challenge it was some coffin-like object. How odd. He turned back to the ghost as she spoke, met Ishani's gaze, then turned back to look at the oubliette.

Now that was something he had heard of before, but only in passing.

"I'd rather not unleash some...unknown being upon the galaxy, I'd also not like to starve down here." Alisteri looked at Ishani and shrugged. "I'm willing to open it. I can bear the responsibility. As long as we get set free afterwards it matters little."

Not to mention that he particularly wanted a close look at the oubliette for his own purposes. That little detail could be kept to himself.

Ishani Dinn

 

[Ishani Dinn]

Ishani stared at the oubliette. Whatever was inside, Alisteri claimed that he could live with the responsibility for unleashing it. But could Ishani?

She thought of her home, her family. Of her dreams and hopes for the future. Her life was just starting to get better. She didn't want to die here, not even heroically. But what was heroic about starving to death, sealed in a tomb? No one would ever know what had happened to her. Not Arcturus, not the kids, not her parents. No one would know what she'd sacrificed—and for all she knew, it wasn't worth sacrificing herself for.

But there has to be another way—

"There is no other way out of here," the ghost said, as if she had read Ishani's mind. "I won't let you out otherwise."

Ishani's throat bobbed as she swallowed. "Whatever is in there, it better not be some fucking Destroyer-of-Worlds dickhead. The galaxy has too many of those running around right now as it is."

She approached the oubliette hurriedly, feeling along its sides for an unlocking mechanism. It was almost shockingly simple. She flicked a switch, and the oubliette released jets of steam, the lid slowly beginning to rise...

Darth Strosius

 

[Darth Strosius]

"Whatever is in there, it better not be some fucking Destroyer-of-Worlds dickhead. The galaxy has too many of those running around right now as it is."

Despite the circumstances he actually had to catch himself before he started laughing at that. She was far from wrong after all. However his moment of catching himself and holding back a laugh meant that he barely noticed how quick Ishani had went to the oubliette, doing a double take when he finally saw her in the hidden mausoleum already.

Not one to be left out, especially for something exciting like this, he quickly caught up to her right as she managed to get the oubliette unlocked. It seemed rather easy, for better or worse.

Alisteri watched as steam was released and the lid began to move, idly taking a step back out of caution even as his gaze roamed over the device to note down the detail. He had little idea when he would find another intact and working oubliette after all. His grip did tighten on his lightsaber however, quickly flicking the weapon off and crossing his arms behind his back to hide it from whatever figure would emerge.

The last thing he needed was to get murdered by whoever or whatever they had just unleashed because he had a weapon out after all.

Ishani Dinn

 

[Ishani Dinn]

Ishani held her breath as the lid lifted amid a cloud of steam, revealing the contents of the oubliette.

“... A kid?”

The boy inside was not at all what she had been expecting. He looked to be around seven years old, with wispy blond hair and freckles sprinkled across his nose. Even his clothing was underwhelming—instead of dark robes or something similarly intimidating, he wore a casual civilian outfit consisting of a sweater, jeans, and sneakers.

The ghost had said there was a man inside the oubliette, not a little boy. Ishani turned to question her, only to find the apparition had vanished. As promised, a new doorway opened, this one with stairs leading up. There was even a light at the end of the tunnel.

“Who would put a child in this, and why?” Ishani muttered.

The boy’s eyelids started to flutter, his lips twitching as he began to awaken. Ishani knew she should probably take precautions, just in case, but she felt sorry for him. The ghost said he’d been in there for over seven hundred years. That probably meant his family and anyone else who had known him were all long dead.

Darth Strosius​

 

[Darth Strosius]

There was a moment where all his hair stood on end as he waited for the steam to fade and reveal whatever evil they had unleashed. He had been expecting many things, but one of them included a child.

His gaze swept over the boy with confusion and concern, idly leaning in slightly as if a better look would somehow solve why there was a child in an oubliette. Perhaps this boy was the last of the Lost Tribe? One saved to continue on their legacy maybe? "Wh-Why is it a child?" Alisteri clipped his weapon back onto his belt and glanced back as he heard a new door open.

Evidently the ghost was satisfied with their work.

He looked back as the boy started to awaken, glancing up at Ishani before shrugging. "No idea. Let's get him out of here first, shall we?" The masked man spoke low before looking back at the boy and offering him a hand to help him out of the oubliette. "Hey there, you feeling alright buddy? Want some help up?"

Ishani Dinn

 

[Ishani Dinn]

The boy sat up and looked around. “What kind of welcoming party is this?” he asked, frowning. “Where’s all my servants and retainers? Where are my advisors, and the tributes for the new Emperor?”

“Oh, goodness,” Ishani murmured, already beginning to piece things together. “He has no idea how long he’s been in there.”

“I know I was in there for a really long time, long enough to be bored out of my mind. I should’ve been let out much sooner.” The boy glared at her and at the hand Alisteri offered with scorn. “I am the True Ruler of the Lost Tribe of the Sith, Emperor Maximilian Thalassis, First of His Name. Who are you?”

“You’ve got a lot to learn, Max, and I have a feeling you’re not going to like most of it. But let’s get you out of here first.” Reaching into the oubliette, she scooped the boy up and carried him toward the stairs.

“How dare you lay hands upon me!” Max protested loudly—though he didn’t physically struggle in her grasp. “I’ll call my guards to cut off your head!”

“I don’t see any guards around here,” Ishani said with a sigh. “Do you remember what year it was when you went in?”

He told her, and she told him the current year. The boy’s eyes widened. “What?! They left me in there to rot! Those slimy tuk’ata! I’ll have them… I’ll…!”

But there was nothing he could do to the ones who had left him in the oubliette. They were all long dead, along with everyone he’d ever known.

Once they were all outside, Ishani sat Max down. “Okay, what now?” she asked Alisteri. “What should we do with the last emperor of the Lost Tribe?”

Darth Strosius​

 

[Darth Strosius]

The boy's questions paused Alisteri for a moment, him glancing at Ishani in confusion. "New Emperor?" Yet again the unexpected would strike hard and fast. Said 'emperor' wasn't the most gracious and humble either. He pulled his hand back as the boy spoke again and shrugged.

"Someone decidedly lacking in as fancy of a title as you, Mr. First of His Name."

Were it not for the high and mighty attitude of Max, he might have pitied him more. Learning that you had been asleep for centuries and that your entire people were gone as well had to have been rough. Especially on a child of all things. Thankfully there wasn't too much struggle nor whining, other than a bit of fussing of course, as they made their leave of the ruin.

He sighed in relief as the three of them finally made it outside and away from any other weird creatures or ghostly apparitions. Well, until he next decided to go ruin exploring again anyway. But now they had another problem to handle.

"Yeah...that's gonna be an interesting one." He turned back to look at Max and Ishani, reaching up to tap the chin of his mask in thought. "Bringing him to any other Sith may not go over well, 'There can be only one Emperor and it's me' and all that mess." Throwing a child claiming power in with a bunch of Sith tyrants and Darths like the Sith Order wouldn't be the best idea.

It wasn't like they could just let Max wander the galaxy alone either. "He could be hunted by the Jedi and the like if we aren't careful, and I doubt the Crusaders nor the New Imperials will have any mercy. Given their histories. Obviously the Maw is out, they'd probably eat the poor kid."

There were only really two options in the end. "One of us will have to take him in. I know some families that can take care of him, provided he drops the attitude a bit."

Ishani Dinn