Stealing Possessions

[Adriana Fortemps]

A hand pulled at the hood covering Jorryn's face, hoping that it would manage to keep her dry as she looked drearily outwards from the ramp of her ship to the seemingly ever-lasting rainfall that drenched Dromund Kaas. Not that she minded rain, but it would be nice to avoid getting soaked on the way over to the temple.

Despite the development that the former homeworld of the Sith received over the centuries, many of the temples still found themselves a good distance away from any sort of established paths on the planet. This unfortunately made it so that there would be quite a bit of trekking through the jungles of the planet in order to tak... liberate some of the artefacts that were still trapped in the old mausoleum.

Still the clear lack of enthusiasm for cutting her way through the trees was clear on Jorryn's face as she descended past the edge of the ramp and the pitter-patter of rain tapped against her hood. A small wave to the ship told the pilot to head back to the nearest city to refuel and pick up other supplies while waiting for her. The Sith-Imperial Historic Conversation Society had it's connections and donations were always a welcome donation to curry favour with them.

"Uuuughhh..."

The very audible sigh came as soon as Jorryn's boots already started to fill themselves up with water before igniting her lightsaber and beginning to slash away and of the roots and vines that interrupted her pace, the sizzling of the rain against the blade calming her somewhat.

Fortunately the journey didn't take the Echani a superbly long time, a few scrapes and nicks from her travel through the jungle had Jorryn agitated as she slumped herself down on the steps of the ancient Sith temple. Normally she would have taken time to admire the beauty of the mausoleum, but currently she was soaking, shivering, miserable and mildly regretting coming in the first place. Hopefull her fellow Valkyrie, [member="Vaylin"], would make her way there quickly so the pair could get this mission done with quickly.

 

[Vaylin]

It had been far too long since Vaylin had returned to her initial roots, that of exploring whether it be a planet in general or a tomb. One of the first things she had done after leaving Dxun, was travelling to Athiss and finding something to explore. But it had also ended up being something that had greatly changed her. The Zabrak had known of the Dark Side of the Force from being stuck on the Demon Moon for years, but her time on Athiss had been what shaped her today.

These days she had a lot more responsibility within the Sith Empire, now acting as a Commander on the more larger scale operations. With a Star Destroyer at her beck and call, along with the duties of commanding a fleet. Vaylin had been on a long path, starting as an abandoned Jedi-turned-Sith to the person she was now.

But she was never going to pass up an opportunity for the more simpler things. So when [member="Jorryn Fordyce"] had messaged her about this little adventure, Vaylin had jumped at the chance.

Their destination was Dromund Kaas, and the Zabrak was practically in her element. She had moved through the jungles with ease, dressed in her usual armour with an assortment of gear and trinkets with her. Vaylin wasn't even bothered by the rain, although she was technically cheating. The Dwomutchwûq; or Firestarter as Vaylin came to call it, kept the Valkyrie warm despite the constant rain.

Eventually she appeared through the treeline to a large clearing that led up to temple steps. In comparison to Jorryn, Vaylin looked like she had just had a pleasant walk through a park, let alone a dense jungle.

"Had fun traversing the land, Jorryn?"

The Zabrak walked up to the Echani, taking note of the slight scrapes and nicks decorating her skin.

 

[Adriana Fortemps]

The expression plastered clearly on the Echani's face already told the answer [member="Vaylin"] was looking for, her still damp hair draped across her face as she looked up to meet the Zabrak.

A resounding no.

"I should've invested in some armour." Hints of a humour belying the otherwise melancholy tone as Jorryn sat up to meet her friend, before pulling her hood down and straining the locks in front of her face from water. "If you brought a spare, now would be a great time to show me."

A smile began to crack on Jorryn's face as she folded her arms miserably before nodding her head towards the entrance of the cave, motioning for her fellow Valkyrie to follow her as she began her own way into the temple. The musky smell of a tomb that clearly wasn't meant to be entered again would be the first thing to hit the pair, a sleeve lifting it's way to the Echani's nose as she tried to block the foul smell.

"Hopefully the journey will at least have been worth something, I'm not sure which Sith lived her but the old ones did love their trinkets."

The inside of the temple was a grand chamber with many paths leading to both higher areas and sublevels, other pathways leading to unknown routes. The moss covered stone was pierced with the dark side, allowing the entire architecture to give off the feeling of whichever Dark Lord had chosen that this would be their corpse's home.

"Well then," Jorryn smirked as she looked back to the Zabrak. "Which one of these pathways is pulling you?"

 

[Vaylin]

Vaylin let out a small laugh, grinning in response to [member="Jorryn Fordyce"]'s answer. No, the Echani certainly didn't have a great time reaching the temple. At least she had the fortune of not running into any threats along the way, unlike the Zabrak's first ever venture into a tomb.

Fighting against a group of arachnids twice the size of her.

"Alas, I did not. I tend to pack light for these kind of adventures." She said, while having a rather sizable pack on her back.

She followed Jorryn up the stairs and towards the entrance. Unlike the one on Athiss, the giant doors were already cracked open. That meant a number of things to Vaylin, but most importantly was the fact they weren't the first ones to come here. As they stepped through, the Zabrak wrinkled her nose in disgust. The places always smelled awful, and the fact it was this bad from the entrance was not a good sign.

"They also like their karking puzzles...always with the bloody puzzles."

They pressed forwards, exploring the Grand Chamber, age was clear in the degradation of stone. Even the statues were faceless, corroded away by time. Vaylin raised an eyebrow, looking at Jorryn before glancing around at the various pathways. She focused for a moment, letting her mind wander through the Force towards where the greatest pull was.

"'m feeling the strongest that way." She pointed to the eastern passage. "But that tells me we should avoid it. Why? Because it's a trick, they want us to follow our greed and fall into a trap." Instead Vaylin led the way towards the western path, only to stop as it became apparent the decaying smell was getting worse. Evident by trio of corpses propped up against the wall.

"Well...that explains some of the smell."

 

[Adriana Fortemps]

A small frown crept along the Echani's face as she eyed [member="Vaylin"]'s pack, wondering what the Valkyrie's definition of light was. By contrast, the Echani's small satchel seemed hardly fitting. She hardly expected this to take more than a night, though she was a bit nervous now.

"Every Ancient Lord thinks they were the first to make a temple for themselves," Her amber eyes wandering over to some statue lining the walls, the face half crumbled away. "Really makes you wonder if they all looked the exact same too with these statues."

She gave a small chuckle at her own jokes before turning back to her companion, listening to her explain the reasoning behind the path. An audible sigh as the tricks of the temple were told by the Zabrak, not wanting to deal with all the issues of the temple.

"Of course it is." A slight tone of annoyance in her voice as her eyes wandered around the rest of the doors. "Well I suppose it has to be one of these."

The offensive odour became even stronger once it's main source was pointed out by the other girl, Jorryn's nose wrinkling in disgust as she once more covered it with her sleeve. The corpse's didn't seem too old, but with the dark side one could never be too sure. At least it told them to stay on their toes.

"The temple or their employer," A smirk grew across her face, obscured by her sleeve. "Which one do you think it was this time?"

 

[Vaylin]

"Both, probably." Vaylin didn't seem too bothered by the smell, at least in comparison to Jorryn. The Zabrak knelt down, pulling her pack onto the ground and opened it up. She said nothing as she rummaged through the contents for a moment, until she pulled out a pair of disposible gloves. Vaylin slipped them on; clashing terrible with the colour of her armour, before beginning an examination of the bodies.

"Yeah, definitely both. Have a look at this one, he was poisoned." Vaylin pulled the man's collar to reveal a series of dark green veins spreading across his neck. "Then there's this..." She paused, carefully undoing the man's shirt enough to reveal his torso. There was more of the sickly veins, but more importantly was the hole in his chest, where his heart was meant to be. "Stabbed with a lightsaber."

There was a similar state with the other two, although both lacked any of the poison. Instead one had a slash across their back, whereas the other had several blaster marks dotted around their chest.

"Looks like one got poisoned, became a loose end and was killed for it. I'm going to assume the other two disagreed and met the same fate." Vaylin mumbled to herself, though loud enough for Jorryn to hear. "Either way, it means this didn't happen too long ago."

FInished with her examination, Vaylin peeled the gloves off and threw them aside.

"Here's hoping they've cleared the way." Sealing her pack back up, the Zabrak hauled it back up over her shoulder and pressed on, leading the way further into the temple.

[member="Jorryn Fordyce"]​