Ghost Hunting

[Mereel Vaun]

Before Mereel could begin walking back to the hole they had entered through, something highly improbable happened. He felt the tug again. This time he was ready.

As the fierce pull of the water beast drew him back into the water, Mereel drew his pistol. Whatever it was, it was dragging him much faster this time. He tried aiming at a tentacle he could see clasping onto his foot, but his every shot went wide and splashed harmlessly against water or impacted into walls of either cobble or dirt.

He opened himself up to the force again, and felt a familiar, sickening dark presence. The creature had to be some form of phantom he had never seen before, or maybe it was just the local wildlife that was exceedingly hungry. Either way, he could now feel the darkness of the castle from his current position.

The creature moved once again to carry him around the corner of the dark tunnel, but he had a different idea for his approach this time. He turned up his helmet audio amp and yelled, "Follow my knives!"

Out of his left gauntlet's five blades, he ejected a single blade into the dirt wall corner as a marker. The other two would have to follow the trail of blades he would leave behind if they wanted to find him.

The creature had eluded his blaster bolts last time. Whatever it was, he wasn't going to give it a second opportunity to escape, he would wait until it stopped dragging him, and then he would strike.

As it dragged him down a straight water tunnel, he ejected another blade into a patch of dirt on the left side of the wall. He struggled his boot a little to get the creature to be more anxious to secure its prey.

With quickened pace, the tentacle monster dragged him around another bend, this time to the right. With his pistol still in his right hand, he hurriedly extended his right wrist blades, and stuck a blade haphazardly into the dirt corner.

The awkward and desperate jab caused him to drop his pistol, and he watched in horror as the blade he stuck in the wall fell out of its dirt housing. "Fierfek."

After rounding the corner where he had dropped his pistol, the creature stopped. Its grip on his leg tightened, and he saw black tendrils slowly ascending up both of his legs. He gave the creature three solid kicks with his left boot. He heard something in the water shriek in pain, but the monster kept climbing further and further up his armor.

The head of the creature surfaced out of the water, and his worst fear was confirmed.

The creature had the head of a man and where a torso should have been, only wide tentacles protruded out of the head's neck. The face's skin was rotted with time, and sharp teeth jagged out of the form's mouth at unnatural angles. It was one of the castle's ghosts. A ghastly illusion that he couldn't directly sense with the force, and he couldn't locate using his armor's motion trackers - because nothing is there.

But something was definitely there, and he already knew that the ghosts could inflict terrifying injuries. He retracted his remaining wrist blades on both wrists and plunged his fists into the beast's head. It simply cried out before continuing its dreadful assault. He already knew wrist blades were terribly ineffective against these beasts, but he had dropped his pistol, and he couldn't pull the rifle from over his shoulder with the monster pressing him down.

[member="Iona Immarya"] | [member="Lord Demone Rosso"]​

 

[Iona Immarya]

"More like I didn't want to explain to everyone back home how I lost the Mando Jedi on my first outing, they would never let me live it down," Iona said with a flawless, and purposely done, hair flip... that made the wet ponytail slap her back rather loudly. His next comment left her blinking in astonishment, of course that thing wasn't one of the ghost. It was some kind of weird monster thingy. The ghost were just a bad of ruffians with a child's understanding of names, it was like looking up and commenting that the sky was, indeed, not a lovely shade of pink... well, it wasn't on this world.

Iona didn't answer his suggestion to leave the tunnels, all she did was look around her at the murky water, raise her hands to her side and cock her eyebrow up in her best, 'you think?' look. Iona nearly jumped, again, when the man snuck up on her... again. She hadn't looked back at him while chasing Vaun, not because she didn't want to, but she had been a little preoccupied chasing her comrade. It seems they were all under agreement. Iona turned on her heel, or well, tried to, it was far less refined then normal due to the three feet of water slowing her down, but right as she turned the water erupted behind her again, "Oh, come on!" Iona yelled as she whirled around, reignited her lightsaber and, once more, she charged down the breach after the rapidly disappearing Vaun.

She did her best to keep up, but once again started to fall behind as whatever it was was fast, at least it was a bit easier to follow thanks to his quick thinking in plunging his knives into the wall which she did not pull out as they needed to find a way out somehow and it would be easy enough to back track.. Assuming Vaun stopped getting himself captured every five seconds. It wasn't until the blaster shots stopped that she started to panic. She came to a bend, checked the wall but no knife. The water was too dark to see if it had slipped out, but now Iona had to pick. Left or right. Left or right. Right or left. Iona tried to sense but couldn't, once again, the darkness of the castle above was dampening her senses... She heard splashing behind her and pointed right, "Go right! I'll check left!" She shouted back to the man behind her and didn't wait for an answer as she stormed down the left corridor, unbeknownst to her, in the opposite direction of Vaun.

[member="Lord Demone Rosso"] [member="Mereel Vaun"]

 

[Savoh Muska]

At high speed, Savoh's ship punched through the atmosphere. Almost like a fireball raining down from the sky. Piloting his B8 Type 2 starfighter, he looked down at the lush planet below him. He'd heard of some individuals coming here not too long ago into a castle. Looking for treasures, but said ghosts were here, so they never completed their exploring. Fortunately for the Ubese he didn't believe in ghosts, so he wouldn't have a problem, or so he thought. Landing his craft near the coast of a nearby lake he got out.

Just to be safe he'd bring his DC-15A blaster rifle with him. Seeing the castle not too far away Savoh would head out. Hoping this would be a quick and easy snatch and grab.

 

[Lord Demone Rosso]

Still walking holding his crimson lightsaber up walking he hears the girl talking, of course, she was a chatty fellow he didn't mind he liked the way she carried herself then suddenly he felt a weird dark feeling as he saw the Mandalorian disappear " AGAIN " he started following the woman not wanting to leave her by herself incase of a second monster before she told him they needed to seperate watching her go left he did not like it but he could sense the Mandolorian was right " Ok then " he raised his lightsaber following the right path unsure as to what awaits him.


[member="Mereel Vaun"] | [member="Iona Immarya"] | [member="Savoh Iaht"] |

 

[Mereel Vaun]

The creature was starting to wear him out when he heard splashes in the water nearby. He grunted out a call for assistance as he brawled with the monster, "Could - "

The creature sunk a spiny, barbed tentacle between the gap between the armor plates on his leg, "use a hand over here!"

He raised his arm and attempted to activate his flamethrower, but nothing came out. The projector must have had water stuck in it.

The water monster launched two tentacles toward his helmeted head. Realizing that he would be unable to counter the strike with a wristblade in time, he used his last resort, and opened himself to the force energy around him.

He called forth the energy, and created a small force barrier between the creature's spiky tentacles and his helmet. Two tentacles hovered in the air before him, straining to reach his head through the invisible field.

[member="Lord Demone Rosso"] | [member="Iona Immarya"] | [member="Savoh Iaht"] | [member="Aden"]​

 

[Lord Demone Rosso]

Walking down the right path he started to hear struggling as he continued he hear the Mandolorian say something that was blocked by the sound of him being panicked and from what Rosso could tell being chocked the man used his cybernetics to run extremely fast through the water jumping with his lightsaber in his hand landed near the creature and delivering 3 extremely fast strikes that only powerful force users could keep up with looking down as the monster started to seem like cry he reached his hand down to [member="Mereel Vaun"] " We need to leave more will come I can feel it ".


[member="Mereel Vaun"] | [member="Iona Immarya"] | [member="Savoh Iaht"] |

 

[Iona Immarya]

Iona made her way through the water, her lightsaber held aloft in her right hand to illuminate the path as she forged ahead, she turned one corner.. then another... followed by yet another. She was going the wrong direction. She knew that as well. Years spent in the under-city of Coruscant gave her a pretty decent sense of direction in confined underground mazes, but it would take too long to backtrack and if she had one the wrong direction, that meant she had sent the other man the right direction. She felt pretty confident she would have felt Vaun's death, as awful as that was to think about.

She had tried, in vain, to establish communications but something in this place was disrupting it, something dark, something sentient. Normally, she would call herself crazy, mock herself for being scared of the dark, she wasn't. Being in dark, confined spaces filled with creatures that wanted to eat her or sell her into slavery was her childhood, but there was something about this place. A presence, sometimes she could almost see it from the corner of her eye, but when she looked it was gone. If Iona stopped thinking about it, it would touch the edges of her mind, probing her sould as if looking for a spot to latch on, but the second she turned, it would disappear again, receding into the shadows.

This.. thing, she didn't know if it was just a dark side nexus or perhaps some potent force user was there, among the pirates, and perhaps everything was drawing to this dark presence, moths to a flame... There was something at the heart of these tunnels though, she could feel it in her bones. There was danger in the castle above, but something told her that the true foe lay in the depths of this place, and she would have been laying if she said she wasn't afraid... Regardless of what it was, she would face it.

But whatever It was... It watching her.

[member="Mereel Vaun"]

 

[Mereel Vaun]

Mereel took the man's hand, and pulled himself up to a standing position. He could now feel water pressing against the synthmesh layer of his body glove, the creature had punctured the outer armorweave, "Can't go back, already put this off once."

He scanned his surroundings with his helmet flashlights, and walked to the corner where he had dropped his pistol. He kicked around in the water a bit until he felt something rub against his foot. He bended down and started reaching around with his hands until he felt the familiar grip of his DL-18.

He put the pistol back in its holster and looked to the man, a bit panicked at his sudden realization, "Where's Iona?"

[member="Iona Immarya"] | [member="Lord Demone Rosso"] | [member="Savoh Iaht"] | [member="Aden"]​

 

[Lord Demone Rosso]

Looking around reaching out with the force to sense any movement, breathe, thoughts, feelings and emotions but he was only being blackscreened by a power he had not felt before " She told me to go this way and get you while she went the other I cannot sense her " sounding slightly worried the man continued down the hall the way he came " Now that you are fine I'm going to find her come or don't but I could use your flashlight could be useful so I would rather you come " as he stopped looking back at the Mandolorian he did not want him to be hurt if the man were to leave him alone but he also wanted to find the woman he had interacted with earlier along with wanting to stay away from the caves.

[member="Mereel Vaun"] | [member="Iona Immarya"] | [member="Savoh Iaht"] |

 

[Iona Immarya]

Iona held her lightsaber high to try and gain more light as she crept through the water, the tunnels were widening. A normal person would not have noticed, but her street rat senses screamed at her that where she was going was going to open up into a cavern soon, whatever was down here, she was betting was in that cavern. There was something else down there, she became more and more sure of it the closer she drew towards the source.

Faintly, she could hear the sound of cascading water, echoing down the tunnel, as she walked she noticed there was less water then before and that it was moving faster around her legs, the current was moving towards where she was going which, at least, let Iona move a bit easier as she no longer had to fight her way through the water to move. Iona could feel the opening of the tunnel a bit further down, there was light up ahead. She paused for a moment, her heart and resolve wavered just a moment, she was about to go in alone. She had no idea where Vaun or that other man were, no reason to believe they would catch up in time save, perhaps, to clean up her body. She took a deep breath and forged ahead once more, this was her duty, she was a Jedi.

Iona stopped and stared in wonder at the massive cavern that stretched before her. It was, from what she could see, perfectly circular and, on the opposite side, she could make out another opening across the room, stairs leading up to the castle, if she had to guess. At the center of the room was a large structure, almost like an altar, a ray of light descending from a hole in the roof down upon it, and she couldn't suppress the shiver that ran down her spine, 'Great, the pirates are creepy cultist because that makes this better.'

She may have been seeing things, but it looked there were people below her, on the ground leading to the alter, Iona leaned over and gazed down, it was a six meter drop, the water from the caves cascading down, disappearing into the outer rim of the room. She took a deep breath before launching herself out of the mouth of the tunnel and down to the platform below landing lightly. Iona let her blue eyes room the room, she was both right and wrong. There were people below her but they weren't 'people'.

They were statues, Iona stepped closer to a group of them to take a closer look and blanched, they were incredibly realistic and very morbid. Men, women and even children were here, some were rising to stand, their faces contorted in anger, others were curled up on the ground in pain... There was a statue of a woman holding onto what must have been her child and it may have been the trick of the light but for a moment she thought she saw tears running down her face.. There must have been a hundred statues here. Iona tore her eyes from them and towards the altar as she headed towards it dreading what she would find.

[member="Lord Demone Rosso"] [member="Mereel Vaun"]

 

[Mereel Vaun]

He felt rather insulted by the man for thinking he would make a choice other than pressing on, "I didn't come here just to leave an ally to die."

Mereel pulled the rifle strap to the front of his shoulder, and replaced the weapon's gas canister with a new one. He followed the stranger down the tunnel with his rifle raised and at the ready. No phantoms rose out of the darkness to challenge their movement deeper into the watery tunnels. After walking for a short time, he realized that the water current was flowing in the direction they were walking.

His helmets commlink began blaring static, his motion tracker began showing blips barreling through the empty tunnels around them, and his helmets began rapidly flickering between thermal and normal vision modes. He removed his helmet as the two men entered a large circular chamber. Below them in the center of the chamber, he thought he saw people. "Contacts, look alive."

[member="Iona Immarya"] | [member="Lord Demone Rosso"]​

 

[Lord Demone Rosso]

He looked back at the Mandalorian " I've never had someone call me an ally, feels good " the man smiled for a second although his mask covered it he continued down the dark tunnels until they arrived at a large opening into a bigger room that was darker than the one they were already in but the crimson glow of his lightsaber along with the Mandalorians flashlight they had decent visibility responding to the man telling him that there was contact he looked at him " Finally some fun " as the man took off running leaping infront of one as he raised his saber to strike said being down he felt no living force energy coming off this figure it was not alive " False alarm they are dead " as his voice sounded confused and stunned never have seen anything like this he still sensed a massive amount of dark energy somewhere and it was clouding him from sensing the and reaching out to the woman " I cant contact her with the force something is clouding me " with his lightsaber now at his side he waited for his companion to make his way down.


[member="Mereel Vaun"] | [member="Iona Immarya"] | [member="Savoh Iaht"] |

 

[Iona Immarya]

Iona was oblivious to the pair on the other end of the great podium, too concentrated on the altar as she slowly climbed the steps towards it, her lightsaber held above her head casting light upon the black glassy stone as she ascended. She did not waiver this time, it didn't matter that it felt like she was walking into a black hole in which all the light of the world was being sucked into the space above her, it didn't matter that she felt cold or that, occasionally, she would hear screams and cries for help, but each team the voices were distorted as if they were shouted down a tunnel and whenever she had looked, there had been no one, no one but her and the statues.

Finally, she stepped to the top of the crude temple and her azure eyes fell upon the altar and let out a small gasp, the obsidian altar had blood on it. Fresh blood that dripped onto the temple beneath it, yet there was no sign of anyone around, the dust had only been disturbed by her, she could even make out her footprints as she had been ascended. Moreover, the blood wasn't stopping, a continually stream of blood that fell to splatter against the stone yet never did it overflow the temple as if the blood was seeping into the black stones. At the center of the blood sat a stone object. A small stone pyramid that appeared untouched by the blood lake it sat in. There was no marks on the black pyramid and it looked like nothing she had seen before.

Every instinct Iona had told her to destroy the stone and the altar with her saber. To cleave through the darkness that infested this place, but she stayed her hand. This stone... She wasn't sure what would happen if she struck it, the masters... the masters would know what to do with this thing, know what it was, and most importantly, know how to safely destroy it. She moved the saber to her left hand as she had no desire to touch the the thing with her hand, so instead, she reached out with her mechanical hand, the servos in her arm giving off a soft whine of protest as her fingers closed around the stone and Iona braced herself for something to happen.

But nothing did. Not until she lifted the stone, the blood stopped flowing and slowly receded into the dark stones. Iona almost dropped the pyramid in surprise, but her mechanical fingers held their grip and quickly, as if she no longer wanted to think about what she was holding, she slipped it into the inner pocket of her robes. It weighed heavily against her and reminded her of its presence every time she moved as it bounced against her ribs, but she would get it back to the masters and she would see this thing destroyed. She may not know what it was, but Iona knew evil when she saw it.

Lifting her saber once again, she headed down the other side of the temple, towards the stairs that would lead up to the castle above, but first, she had to deal with the delusional monstrous pirate cultist.



[member="Lord Demone Rosso"][member="Mereel Vaun"]

 

[Mereel Vaun]

Mereel merely nodded in reaction to the stranger's proclamation of the eerie statues being dead. The darkness of the castle was prominent here, yet it was not the strongest he had felt it. He could remember the dark pressure almost physically weighing him down last time he was in the castle.

A dim light at the other end of the grand chamber drew his attention. Iona's emerald saber stood out amidst the dark. She seemed to be walking up a staircase that lead further into the unknown - perhaps it went into the castle proper.

He raised his helmet's external microphone volume, "Iona! Wait up!! Where the kriff are you going?!"

Mereel didn't see whether or not she stopped to acknowledge his voice, instead he looked down onto the podium. The stranger was already below him amidst the statues, but getting to the podium was going to be difficult for Mereel. Rushing waters of unknown depth divided the rise on which he was standing and the podium's surface below him. There was a roughly two meter gap between the two surfaces, and the water dividing them flowed down tunnels branching off to Force knows where.

He tried firing off his jetpack to test it, but no dice. He was going to have to jump the gap by foot alone.

He walked back to the rise's entrance and began sprinting toward the steep drop off, propelling himself forward by kicking off of the last of the ground. As he fell, he extended all of the remaining wristblades on both of his gauntlets and held his arms out in front of him. He fell short of landing on the podium, but his armor's blades held firm to the podium floor.

He slowly clambered up and out of the water until he was laying on his back on dry floor. Get up di'kut.

He sprang to his feet. Every second he was on the floor was a second Iona got closer to the castle proper. He began running through the rows of horrid statues and toward the staircase Iona had been ascending.

[member="Iona Immarya"] | [member="Lord Demone Rosso"]​

 

[Lord Demone Rosso]

Watching the man struggle down he wondered why he was force sensitive Rosso could sense as much but why didn't he just use the force to power himself running after him being fast because of the suits cybernetics enhancements " Why don't you use the force if you are force sensitive " running through rows of the dead people he was right behind the Mandalorian keeping pace with him to talk as they ran towards Iona.

[member="Mereel Vaun"] | [member="Iona Immarya"] | [member="Savoh Iaht"] |

 

[Mereel Vaun]

Mereel ran past the empty altar at the center of the grand podium, the alter itself felt viciously dark, yet he felt it was lacking something.

"Have you seen my weaponry? I'm not exactly fully trained ner vod."

He could still see emerald light coming from somewhere up the staircase ahead of them as he reached the bottom of the staircase. "Iona? Stop!"

The green light continued fading, and he began sprinting up multiple stairs at a time to not lose sight of it. He almost fell at several points, but each time he began to stumble he recovered. His wet armor added substantial weight to him, requiring him to put his armor's air conditioning unit to the max, and he gasped in deep gulps of air as he ascended the stairs. Even when dry, the beskar'gam was an extremely heavy piece of equipment, and running was always a massive feat.

Nonetheless, he ran until he found himself only feet away from the source of the green light. Iona continued her upward march, paying him no mind as if entranced.

Not knowing how else to get her attention, Mereel did what Mandalorians did best. He hurled his armored form at the body of his Jedi ally in an attempt to tackle her.

[member="Iona Immarya"] | [member="Lord Demone Rosso"]​

 

[Lord Demone Rosso]

Following the Mandolorian as he lead the way after Iona but Rosso's curiosity was not filled he still didn't understand why the man was untrained still running following him as they reached the top he saw man jump at this woman watching the outcome he stepped back " Well if you need someone to teach you about the force I would be more than willing " knowing the man would not take his offer he still had to make it as he has a 100% chance of missing if he didnt shoot the question and he only stood a 98% chance even asking but 2% was better than 0 as he stood next to his comrads.

[member="Mereel Vaun"] | [member="Iona Immarya"] | [member="Savoh Iaht"] |

 

[Iona Immarya]

As Iona ascended the stairs, the object she had taken from the alter pulsed in her pocket a rather uncomfortable and distracting sensation as it pressed through the thin cloth and into her ribs, she was very lucky she was only ticklish on her toes and collarbone else she would have been giggling like a mad woman in a dark tower being crushed by the dark side nexus which would have just completed the image of a mental breakdown as well as any. She had stopped to check it twice, yet each time, it looked exactly the same as before, a plain stone object, a pyramid idol that likely held some significance in their weird rituals to whatever it was they believed.

The whispers that had hounded her early, making her jump at every shadow until she had slowly become, not accustomed, but able to phase them out as nothing more then the constant sirens, screams and echos of the Coruscant Under-City had grown worse with every step she took. Sometimes, Iona could almost swear she could feel something probe her mind, searching for an entrance, but each time, it would recede when she turned her attention to it as if it wasn't yet strong enough to face her but was waiting its chance.

A sudden movement ahead caught her attention and she snapped her lightsaber up, the blade parallel with her body as she instinctively sunk into the basic defensive stance of Shii-Cho. Her azure eyes peered up into the darkness above her, then she saw it again, the movement. It was quick and it was almost as if it had entered straight through the wall ahead of her and then out, but that wasn't possible. For a moment, just a moment, she could have sworn she saw the glint of its eyes. Iona took a step forward to chase after whatever it was when the voices started again, screaming, pleas for help, a woman begging for them to spare her child.

Her movements froze as she tried to shake off the voices, the object pulsing in her robes wants more as if excited by the sudden change, Iona was about to continue when something smashed into her, she had time to let out an unintelligible, "Wh-!" As she smashed into the hard stone steps, something cold and hard pressed her into the stone. Iona kept the lightsaber pointed away from herself, pinned as it was, as she tried to fight whomever was on her with her free hand, her far stronger mechanic arm pinned beneath her and still gripping the saber.

As she struggled, her instincts telling her to bite, punch, claw and kick, her eyes saw blue and she stopped, "Vaun..." She said slowly realizing exactly who had tackld her, "Vaun!" She said again as the realization made its journey all the way through her mind, "What the hell!?"

[member="Lord Demone Rosso"][member="Mereel Vaun"]

 

[Mereel Vaun]

Mereel loosened up his grip as Iona reacted to his tackle like a normal person would. He turned down his helmet speakers and tried to keep his amusement at the oddity of their situation out of his voice, but he couldn't stop himself from sounding a little bit cheerful, "Welcome back to the land of the living. I'm glad you're alright, I wasn't exactly looking forward to losing another Padawan on my third mission."

He stopped pinning the woman and clumsily got back up on his feet, and once more he offered an arm to help the woman up, "Why the kriff didn't you stop or say anything? I had my helmet audio transmitters at full volume."

He looked over to the stranger with the crimson saber, the timing of the offer was a bit odd to him. He found himself considering it for a slight fraction of a second, before realizing that he had all the connections he needed to continue his training whenever he desired it, "I appreciate the offer, but I think the Order is already willing to teach me."

"They might be able to make me as fearless as this one while they're at it." Mereel said, tilting his head towards Iona as he said it.

[member="Iona Immarya"] | [member="Lord Demone Rosso"]​

 

[Lord Demone Rosso]

Turning away after the Mandalorian there was no need for him here they were not the same Rosso wanted power and happiness he did not kill and murder or enjoy to kill like most Sith or dark side users Rosso prefered to take a slow and friendly approach only attacking with vicious might only when he absolutely needed too some times it was needed to wipe villages or kill some criminal scum to achieve his own rewards because he was gaining power and taking it from criminals to use on them it helped the public alot every once in awhile the public lost and some died but mostly it was peaceful and yes Rosso used the darkside but he also understood the light not hating it as Sith do he understood its powers and could use them but the darkside was also powerful and more so in a combative way and sense he was mostly on the offense he used the darkside more but if in the mood he would and could use lightside powers like a Grey Jedi but a darker version Rosso ultimately thought this was the most powerful view of power and while his connection to the force was weak compared to some others he crafter that power into a precise weapon with training and his natural abilites and immense skill in swordplay with his enhanced strength and durability with the help of the force for his speed and agility he was truly a match for anyone he faced he believed everyone should know both sides as you are only half your potential when you dont use the other half within walking down the steps and away from the two as they reunited they were no use of him and they were safe no reason for him to stay and be a third wheel while being a criminal and looked down apon from the Jedi views.

[member="Mereel Vaun"] | [member="Iona Immarya"] | [member="Savoh Iaht"] |