Stirring Up an Anthill

[Riamah]

Listening around her, the silence was quite profound. The guards were still sleeping and Ra couldn't hear any moving in front of her. Across the bridge, it might be different thought. The sound of dripping water came from in front of her and she followed the path at her feet.

About to take another step on what had so far been an uneventful crossing, a click happened. It was so out of place here, it caught Ra's attention away. The weapons of the statues above her, started moving and came down around her in what at first glance was random. Safe for the moment, Ra takes the time to watch the pendulum strokes of the items. If she timed her moves right, she should be able to skim past each one separately.

Before she moved, she watched carefully and timed her first jump...

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[Daxton Bane]

@Ra'a'mah

From his observation point the Professor smiled and nodded as he glanced at the guages which measured the test subject. Aggression and bravery were equally high which bodes well for his student. He watched as she deft leapt between the swinging blades with ease until she reached the midpoint where intersecting blades moving as rapid pace. No matter what the timing there was no avoiding getting hit or knocked off the path.

Deciding that she had wasted enough time avoiding the blades, a direct approach was more appropriate and used the Force to push the blades as they came her way. Soon enough she was across the deadly traps and as soon as she was passed the blades stopped moving.

She saw a figure lying prone along the path, it seemed like a young wounded male clutching a bleeding shoulder. "You have to go back....before its too late." He warned her in a wheezing pained voice.

 

[Riamah]

When she reached the middle of the bridge, the weapons stopped moving and she finished crossing way fast than when she had begun. Trying to keep track of the time, she knew she wouldn't have much more than about ten minutes before the first guards woke up.

In front of her a form lay on the ground, he was clutching his shoulder and he cried out for her to turn back. Ra did not see who or what caused the wound and stopped moving again. Perhaps some other form of trap lay in front of her waiting to be set off by a trigger of some sort.

Knowing her staff was pretty useless to her as a weapon, Ra pulled it off her back and raised it do it was laying horizontal in her hand at shoulder level. The front half she moved up and down as she walked forward to see if anything fired at it.

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[Daxton Bane]

@Ra'a'mah

The staff revealed no presence of traps, at least not the kind she was searching for. She had only turned her back on prone figure for an instant when the hair on back of her neck tingled as if sensing potential danger. The prone 'injured' man had stood up and drawn a wicked looking silver grey curved scimitar from the scabbard at his side.

"How dare you turn your back me? The eye belongs to me. You are nothing more than a petty thief, no one will miss you when you are gone. Die thief!" He cried out as he swung the blade as her side, she would need to either dodge, block or parry the blow to avoid serious injury.

 

[Riamah]

Ra quickly turned to face the figure that had appeared injured as he spoke and drew a weapon.

Using the Force, she attempted to "push" him physically away from her. If it succeeded, then she would draw out one of her knives, place a foot on the scimitar and move to actually stab the guy in the chest.

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[Daxton Bane]

@Ra'a'mah

It was clear that her assailant wasn't expecting her to use the Force, when her push threw his stance off, causing his blade to miss its target completely. As she drew her knives, he did a back flip to create space between them before eyeing her carefully, his blade at a ready stance.

"Foolish woman. Don't you realize my weapon has far greater reach than yours? Surrender and I just might spare your miserable life." The dismissive tone clearly indicated that he arrogantly thought she posed a little threat to him.

 

[Riamah]

Ra knew she needed to find a way to disarm the man or disable him. Her use of the Force surprised him. Knowing his did possess anything that would withstand that, she could use it to her advantage.

"Our physical weapons yes. I don't surrender however."

Her voice was calm and collected as she considered her next move.

She used the Force again and would lift the man up bodily and attempt to throw him into the chasm she had just crossed.

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[Daxton Bane]

@Ra'a'mah

They clashed wills until hers proves to be the stronger as she lifted him bodily into the air and closer to edge. Fear caused her assailants eyes to widen as he realized he was outmatched. "Mercy!" He pitifully cried out for as he neared the edge and a fall to his probable death.

 

[Riamah]

Ra stopped her moving of the man as he begged for mercy. He might come in useful, but then again he had tried to kill her. She did not let up on her Force hold she had on him though in case he tried to attack her again.

"Throw your sword and any other weapons you have down."

Releasing his arms, she allowed him the freedom to do this. If he took too long to comply, she would push him again closer to the edge.

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[Daxton Bane]

@Ra'a'mah

Glaring at her but seeing he had no other option, he toss the sword to the path and fumbled at his belt before tossing a pair of serpentine bladed daggers as well. "That is all of it. Satisfied?" He claimed with a false bravado to safe hi,self from being defeated so easily.

 

[Riamah]

Keeping her force hold on the attacker, Ra used the Force to throw the weapons over the edge. Motioning with her head, she releases her hold on him indicating for him to go in front of her. She's not close enough to touch him, but her knife is held at the ready.

"It seems you know your way around down here and any traps there are. You go in front and if you try anything, you're dead."

Her voice though calm indicated her patience was wearing thin. Those guards upstairs will be waking up almost any minute.

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[Daxton Bane]

@Ra'a'mah

"Not I have much say in the matter, do I?" He reluctantly agreed, "Who are you anyway? A Jedi or perhaps one of the Sith?" His walk is unsteady as he regains his balance before striding forward to lead the way.

 

[Riamah]

The form asked who she was and Ra just rolled her eyes before answering.

"Does it really matter? To you I am but a thief after the Eye. Let's just keep it at that."

Keeping her senses on alert, Ra follows the guard that attacked her as he lead the way. If there were any biological traps, she would set them off, but she hoped the professor that rigged this simulation hadn't thought that far into the design. She would find out soon enough.

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[Daxton Bane]

@Ra'a'mah

"Well at the very least you are an honest one. By the gods, I really hate the ones who are self righteous, fanatics if you as me. You could never reason with fanatics. Since we are being honest, I will come clean with you. I am not guarding the Eye from you, quite opposite, my dear. I am guarding you from the Eye. It is a cursed object, said to have predated man's travel to space. To peer into its electric blue aura is to risk madness, to see visions that no one was meant to see. Do understand now why you must turn back and abandon this foolish cause?"

 

[Riamah]

This simulation was fun, Ra had no idea what to expect when she started, but was finding the conversation with this form amusing. She didn't let her guard down though and kept her senses focused on around her.

"How can a thief be honest?"

She listened as he spoke further about the eye and how it would cause madness to those that dared look into it. Ra had seen the blue nebula of hyperspace often enough and looked at it every time with no ill effects, she doubted this Eye would bother her in any form.
​
"It is a risk, I'm willing to take."

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[Daxton Bane]

@Ra'a'mah

Leading down the path, they descended several floors down until they arrived in front of a large stone door. Etched on stone was an open eye that seemed to gaze at those who sought entry. The young man smirked and said, "Don't say I didn't warn you. If you proceed you do so at your own peril and it will be all on your head."

Placing a open palm against the eye, the stone door rumbled open as her companion began to wither and age rapidly until only his ash form remains, leaving her all alone at the entrance with his words of warning ringing in her ears.

 

[Riamah]

Ra would have replied, but as the man touched the symbol on the door, he turned to ashes in front of her. She pulled her head back slightly if her eyebrows hadn't been attached, they would have gone to the ceiling of the cave. Had he known he was going to die? It mattered little at this point and Ra took a cautious step forward and into the room revealed by the door.

As she had since the beginning of the exercise, Ra kept her sense on high alert and waited for any traps to be triggered. Hopefully with the speed the now dead guard had lead her here, kept those above from reaching her in the time it took her gain the Eye.

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[Daxton Bane]

@Ra'a'mah

As her eyes adjusted to the gloom she could see the Eye from the entrance of the portal, perhaps forty to fifty feet down the path. The electric blue pulses had an almost hypnotic quality, as it called out to her to come closer, to grasp it in her own two hands. She was so close to victory she could almost taste it.

 

[Riamah]

Ra saw the eye in front of her, drawing for her to just come forward and take it. It was just a short distance away, little more than a several steps. It pulsed with a hypnotic rhythm. She looked at it for a few seconds, but did not follow its pull, that would be foolish.

Stopping in her tracks, just inside the door, Ra looked to see if there were any other traps and weapons that would hurt her.

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[Daxton Bane]

@Ra'a'mah

Her caution revealed the final trap to her Force enhanced senses, as she say that pathway narrowed halway to the final prize, the ground was slick with some sort of lubricant that smelled faintly metallic that she suspected would be highly flammable should a spark be applied. Anyone walking to the Eye, wold surely slip and slide on that mess and soon be covered head to foot in it, so that when they touched the Eye, the electric pulses would act as the igniter and set them ablaze. A very simple and yet fiendish trap indeed.