I Roved Out
Byss
Ruins of Erudol Citadel
There were times when the night settled in so quietly on the forgotten lands of Erudol that one could hear the dead whisper. High above the crumbling ramparts of the citadel the moon hung full and pregnant in the evening sky, illuminating what little wilds remained of Byss in a eerie silver. Far beyond the reach of today's civilization, Erudol had once been a thriving hub of trade centuries ago.
A man named Leizar Lusethem had ruled here, grown his family and fortune here. For forty years after succeeding his father for the mantle of Erudol had he watched the comings and goings of all manner of man and alien alike through the walls of this one great and prestigious fortress. From the high spires, Lusethem stood gazing upon the farmlands below to the east and the forest to the west. In the south the great capital city of Byss gleamed on the horizon from which the main travel route to Erudol sliced like a knife through the valleys and skies.
Though very wealthy and successful in his later years Lusethem grew recluse and depressed following the sudden death of his wife and incurable illness of his daughter that slowly but surely sapped the life from her until she passed after suffering for two years. All that remained to him were the unraveling vestiges of a truly sad life.
The blight of Darth Moridin 450 years ago was perhaps the single most merciful death Lusethem could have asked for. All at once the troubles of his and every other being living on Byss ended within the span of a fortnight - their lives extinguished and their souls absorbed by the legendary Sith Lord, leaving a gaping wound in the Force that even an insensitive individual such as Eske could sense on the periphery of her mind.
There was not one single corner of Byss that had not been touched by the remnants of Palpatine or the powers of Moridin. The Darkside was simply absolute.
Truly fascinating.
Erudol's ghastly silhouette in the sky slowly began to quiver with the growing light of lanterns within the gutted and empty halls. It was a place of history left vastly untouched since the start of the Gulag Plague. Nothing but skeletons and dust for so long ... a perfect place for the Arachneri to settle down and raise her progeny. Years had passed since Eske had first arrived. Forty years to be not-quite-precise. She'd hatched seven children within the halls of Erudol and watch three of them grow. The old courtyards had been their juvenile hunting grounds where they spun their first webs in the high arches to catch the unwary raptors of flight for their first meals. Later they learned to ambush in the wilds that had long since overtaken the surrounding lands.
When last they left, the halls were once again her own.
Eske did not mind the quiet or the solitude for it gave her plenty of opportunity to discover and learn and explore. Her web had expanded, claiming the long corridors of Erudol before stretching into the lands beyond. But now...
Now she had uncovered underground passageways that lead into other nearby ruins and, eventually, towards the capital city.
The Sith were vigilant creatures. It was only a matter of time before they happened upon a far-reaching web or noted missing persons. For now she was content to explore these new tunnels, and explore she did.
