Staffing Issues

[Baros Sal-Soren]

"No. We not go there. We not. We stay."

"I paid you to guide me to the tomb. You will take me to the tomb."

"No. Have your credits back. I no go there. No Sir-Soren. No!"

Turning away from the many-eyed native, Baros grimaced. He was not cut out for field work. Physically he could handle it, staying in shape was a must for the fashion industry, but it was more practical things like knowing which way was north. What was safe to eat? How to use climbing gear - things like that. Really, he should have heeded Greta's advice when they arrived on Ottabesk. Her words bounced through his head even now, "If the people that live here are afraid to go there, you should be too." He had seen them as superstitious. Cowardly even. at least they could survive on the trek from the village though. Baros had not done anything like this since he was a child, and even then he had found it an unpleasant experience.

He looked about at his surroundings. There was a certain excitement to this though. He had dared to do something crazy, on a hunch based on his own discoveries as he learned more about Sith history. This had to be the burial place of the rogue Sith Lord, Sadrin. "It has to be it," he muttered.

Large tree roots had grown about the ancient stone structures as if they had been slowly trying to strangle the life out of them. Some of the roots were now thicker than the fallen pillars that they grew around, over and alongside. Above his head, birds flew about, and the sound of insects clicking and buzzing was incessant to the point of irritation. "At least point me in the right direction...and wait for me to come back," he said in a final effort to get his guide to play along.

Ever so reluctantly, the guide lifted his quivering finger and pointed towards a large tree. Judging from its structure, it appeared to be an epiphyte. Years, maybe centuries earlier, it has started as a small plant growing high above in a moist crevice in an even older tree. But over the years the now ancient epiphyte had grown round about the host tree and strangled the host.

Baros walked cautiously towards the tree, where he found a large root arching up and the plunging into the ground. He ducked underneath the arch, and noted a small hollow, perhaps dug out by animals that lead into the innards of the tree. No doubt the original host tree had long since decayed leaving the parasitcal tree hollowed out. Cracking a light-stick, he tossed it in. The ground within the small cave-like entrance to the tree was not dirt, but a worn down sandstone; the same type that had been used in the construction of the pillars around the site.

He stood up and smiled back to his guide. "It's Sal-Soren. Not Sir-Soren," he said for the fourteenth time, "stay here. Wait for me. If I am not back in 3 hours, go for help. Greta will know what to do." He lied. She would have no clue what to do, but at least someone would know he was missing.

He stooped, preparing to crawl. "You have death wish Baros Sal-Soren."

[member="Scherezade deWinter"]

 

[Scherezade deWinter]

Wearing: Armor | leather pants | combat boots | The Forgemaster's Ring | Ring of Stasis
Wielding: 10 Czerka knives, Fire and Smoke (lightsabers), 5 Glitter Bullets

A few weeks ago, a certain girl had found the Blood Tome that her grandmother had written, full of information about the workings of Sith Magic with Blood. It had taken decades to compile, and no one but the woman knew the tome existed. The tome, and twelve more similar to it. Not only did it contain information about Blood, but names were mentioned as well, some of them having since been lost to myth and legends, others not even a mention on a scroll on some backwater planet. The granddaughter that had found the tome, had memorized those names.

But that girl no longer existed. Broken beyond repair, her heart and soul both shattered, not because of a grandmother who wanted to kill her, but by the people who insisted they loved her, she no longer saw herself as someone who had any place to exist in the galaxy, and she paved the way for another to take her place.

That other did not know who the girl was. Did not know that the Blood Tome was as close to a family heirloom as the powerful bloodline from which her body had come had ever bothered to produce.

The new girl, who answered to the name Madalena, thought she had been merely lucky on a certain quest, that she had found a source of knowledge that for once had managed to tear her attention away from putting the pointy ends of her knives into others, and had learned. And for all the things she had learned from the tome, there was one that she already had tangible plans for that she could follow through. The Staff of Sadrin.

Receiving a few days off from the Knights Obsidian to whom Madalena had sworn a fealty to, she had grabbed her ship, the Nutcracker, and made her way to the deep core without any trouble. She'd landed a mere few hours before the scene of [member="Baros Sal-Soren"] unfurled itself, and while Baros had tried to make use of the locals, Madalena had made use of the Force.

To the naive, that might sound like an easier plan than his. But to the experienced, they would know that it didn't quite provide shortcuts. Madalena did not know the correct presence to look for, did not know what the Staff "tasted" like. All she could do was go on a chase after the Dark Side, and even that was limited. Obviously, the Staff was protected by this and other Force-things, or it would not have survived the centuries on this planet, untouched.

What she had not expected though, was to catch the words of an expedition team, and its leader demanding to be taken to the tomb.

Krakkers, Madalena thought. They knew there was a tomb. That was already at least five steps ahead of where she was. Of course, one could argue that the tomb in question was not the one that she was looking for. But one would also be really silly to assume that these sort of things didn't pretty much always allign together in the most comfortable, or uncomfortable, of ways.

Concealing her presence through the Force, Madalena watched from behind a safe rock at the exchange between the man calling himself Baros Sal-Soren, and the creature with the many eyes, her own eyes half closed to avoid the glow of them shining through the relative darkness.

So there wasn't just a tomb, the tomb was bloody here. How perfect. She would have completely missed it if she had not noticed the presence of these people.

Madalena sighed. If the man went down there and she made follow, the others would alert this Greta person. If she killed the others and the man came out alive, he would alert this Greta person. Either way, short of a complete massacre that would not ensure her odds of finding the staff, her hands were more or less tied. She'd have to play nice.

She didn't like playing nice.

Sighing, Madalena tossed a lock of hair behind her shoulder, and walked forward, eyes open normally now, the emerald green shining. Her gear left no room to question who and what she could be; perhaps not directly a Sith, but most definitely a Force User.

She did her utter best to put a friendly expression on her face.

"Are you totally sure you want to go down there alone, mister Sal-Soren?" she asked, her voice somehow managing to be deep yet child-like at the same time. She smiled.

 

[Baros Sal-Soren]

Baros was half in, rear end out, when the new voice spoke up. His heart had already been racing, and his nerves frayed with what he was trying to do, that this new voice made him jump out of his skin. This was not the greatest idea for someone on their hands and knees while crawling through a tight, moist, nature-filled hollow. "OWW!" He shrieked as he wacked his head on the roof of the crawlspace, but he quickly sucked back any further complaints when his mind registered the voice as female in origin.

Scampering backwards like a child that had been caught reading his father's holomags under his parents bed, Baros squinted into the brighter (though anything but sunny) exterior. As his vision adjusted, he grinned from ear to ear out of habit. "Hi...there," he said with every intention of making a play, but his better judgement stepped in when his eyes finally caught up with the scenario. Jedi. Or not Jedi. Sith? Oh heck. Um.

With a slight grunt, he pushed himself to his feet and attempted composure. Given that he was trying to break into and steal from a crypt of an ancient SIth Lord, he thought that the appearance of a noticeably Forcey type person was not an omen of fortune. "I believe you have caught me at a disadvantage. You know my name," he said feigning a cocksure attitude, "but I do not know yours."

He took a half step back, for safety, and leaned on the large tree to his right. His had found its rest upon a patch of soft, squelchy moss. Baros winced, but kept his hand there. "You...here to explore as well? Or do you like...maybe guard around these parts?"

[member="Scherezade deWinter"]

 

[Scherezade deWinter]

She didn't bother surpassing her laughter when he yelled OWW in discomfort. The expression on her face was amused to match, and her gaze upon Sal-Soren remained intense. She nodded when he greeted her, and kept on openly staring as he pushed himself up to his feet, and the disgust on her face when the squishy moss sounds were heard was all too easy to see.

"You realize some of the moss on the trees here contains flesh-eating bacteria, right?" she asked, raising her eyebrows, "and even those that don't... Eww, dude, eww."

Shaking her head, she removed a bag of one of those wet tissues one gets at restaurants, opened it with her teeth, and gave him the moist rag as she closed the distance between them.

"That one's not flesh-eating, but it's still gross," she added, hoping it would slightly relax him. He was as jumpy as a bantha during mating season. That simply would not do, not out here. Or maybe it would... That mostly depended on why he was here and if he was going to try to take the Staff.

"I don't do guard duty," Madalena snorted, held her hand out, and then took it back, realizing she didn't want any hint of icky moss on her person, "I'm Madalena, and you're maybe trying to get into my tomb. Why?"

[member="Baros Sal-Soren"]