The Stones of Pho Ph'eah [TSE Dominion of Pho Ph'eah Hex]

[Yaadri Osi-Yyn]

Near The Foundry,
Pho Ph'eah.

The young mind of Venthis began to tick and draw over countless plans, ideas, and schemes. His mind had been torn apart at this point. His eyes set forwards towards the onwards path. His lightsaber clipped to his belt, with this cloak dragging across the floor. The burned and torn ends, visible. Venthis was praised, for his suggestion. The idea of being correct sat well with the young acolyte. After being tortured by the man he calls Father, it was... different to receive praise.

Then Malgrog spoke.

Venthis listened closely, taking it in. He absorbed the information, continuing to tick over the idea. Then his Father spoke with a part of himself that Venthis admired. His command was bold. The army would never dare to disobey, there was a level of power.

The march began. They made their way towards the Foundry, the door flung off its hinges. With various creatures charging through including The Dark Titan and Venthis himself. They walked in ready for whatever was about to appear to them. Various workers became startled, looking to the door. They instantly began to shout and gather together. Taking up various weapons around the Foundry.

"Come, turn yourselves over and your death will be quick." Venthis called out, from the entrance of the Foundry.

[member="Darth Prazutis"] | [member="Darth Caecus"] | [member="Onley Xiangu"]

 

[Darth Carnifex]

​

The facility that lay before them was a tumultuous labyrinthe of molten steel, cranking bellows, forges, foundries, and construction lines lined with neglected half-finished hunks of metal. Dirty, soot-ridden workers milled about the foundry's levels while others, more disheveled in appearance, hunched down in darkened corners as if they were too afraid of the light to wander beyond the darkened recesses. The Dark Lord allowed the minions of the Jen' Lazea to stream forth into the mill, slowly walking behind them as his eyes took in the ruin that had befallen the planet's people.

Already their entrance had garnered the attention of whatever passed as a foreman, who peered down from one of the higher rafters to glare menacingly down at the newly arrived throng. He shouted something in his native tongue, and from the tone of his voice it was obviously a warning. More than just the heat of the furnace saturated the air, there was the distinct heat of hate and fury as well. Whatever had caused the Anx to devolve into murderous beasts had also wormed its way into the Pho Ph'eahian, and Carnifex could see several of their nearest members start to pick up hammers, blades, and other instruments in their four arms as the Foreman barked another final warning.

But the Dark Lord had no intention of leaving.

"The cretins know no reason, they are consumed by the dark force. That which from beneath devours, the stone's insidious will." He raised an arm and jabbed his index finger towards the alien who had warned them, "Bring me that one, he may hold some semblance of the answers we seek."

[member="Elensa Jari"] | [member="Onley Xiangu"] | [member="Vaylin"] | [member="Darth Prazutis"] | [member="Venthis Zambrano"]​

 

[Taeli Raaf]

Location: City Council Chambers
Objectives: Investigate

Nearby: [member="Zylah Dvale"] [member="Atlas Kane"]

Serenely, eyes closed, and undisturbed from the aides and secretaries scurrying about their quiet business, Taeli appeared to meditate. What she wasn't about to tell any of the unkempt Pho'Pheash was that she was reaching out with the Force, using one of the more... unconventional techniques she had studied in her travels. A trip to Nam Chorios had been quite fruitful, learning some of the skills from Theran Listeners that called the world home.

Her head would tile as she caught snippets of the conversation outside between two council members.

"We cannot continue this course of action, Maxus! What it is doing to our own people-"

"Would you rather they wander about? We don't know how it spreads yet Caus!"

Oh how interesting... and potentially irritating. If these mysterious black stones turned out to once again be some sort of zombie plague or vessel, she would not take it well... at all. Her senses twitched as she sensed movement in the Force. A clear presence within the Force, likely... a Jedi? Here of all places? A darker presence followed further along in the currents of the Force. Well, one must do what one must do she supposed. The Jedi might have information she did not yet possess.

Yawning in an exaggerated way, she left her comlink code with the secretary, a word not being spoken to her, and she calmly started to make her way out towards where the two council members had been arguing, making sure to raise the hood on her robes. Lightsaber, check. Second lightsaber, check. Shoto up the sleeve, check. Continuing her cover and perhaps starting a new deception, check. She didn't know it yet, but it would be even better as the Jedi in question had been a student of her sister's.

 

[Darth Banshee]

Location: Just behind [member="Darth Carnifex"]
Equipment: War Armour, Banshee Saber and Healing Amulet

She watched him, she was not his apprentice, but she was trying to learn how he wielded his power. She just became queen, he was a pass master at this game. He had people believing he was god, she wanted to know how. They come down to what seemed like a foundry, the molten metal made the place hot, a bit too hot for her taste. The people down here where broken and disheveled, she thought her worse kept slaves where in better condition. He surveyed these people and what had happened to them, she watched them as well, and wonder if just be kinder to put them down. Then again what happened to these, would happen to next people who lived here, so it was better to get to bottom of it. Then they started picking up weapons, and started to threaten the dark lord of the sith, that was stupid. He then said that these people have no idea what was happening, but told her bring him that one. She gave nod of her head, and then head to foreman. She lept over barrier between her and the rest of them, two of them came at her. She shot them both, and they fell like sack of spuds, then aimed a stun right at the foreman's head, he went down just as quickly. Then another rushed her, she span bladed saber staff round cutting their heads off. His corpse fell to the ground, and the nervous in what was left of his body pulsed it up and down, as the blood spewed from it. The rest then fled, deeper into the tunnels. She new her blade could be sensed through the force, as it was strong in the dark side. She then moved to the foreman and grabbed his body and dragged him back to the emperor. As she dumped his stunned body next to emperor, she said ​This was the one you wanted? She smiled under her helmet, she liked getting her hands dirty from time to time.

 

[Wolvren Malefactor]

Location: Foundary
Equipment: Dual Red Zero Weight Curved Lightsabers,Battle Armor,Other gear/Physical desc


Wolvren was just making his way up the steps to the factory as he heard the sounds of violence,'such sweet sounds' he thought as he approached anyone inside would get the feeling of the young dark amount of force approaching as he walked in giving a silent salute to his superiors who were already there and faced forward.

He would sense where majority of the workers had ran down the tunnels.

He would be standing up straight,he would pull his cloak off tie it off around his waist giving himself a semi skirter

His head would turn to look at the stunned foreman,what a decrepit creature almost earns him pity.

He turned himself back around to face the tunnels where the workers had ran off to he would begin to step a few feet forward before he stops keeping his surrounding in mind as he drew his dual light-sabers letting the blades hang at his sides as he just waited, no wanted those workers to return so he may fight and spill blood of his enemy's.It had been far too long since he has had a real fight or just one in general.

He stood sentry and waited.

 

[Darth Ophidia]

Another time.
Anther place.

“From beneath you, it devours.”

The woman traced metal over ashen skin as she ran her fingers over her own chin in a thoughtful caress. Her eyes, irises burning like embers, narrowed as she considered the words. Her lips, purple, pursed in dissatisfaction with her own inability to instantly decipher what this all meant. She needed more intel. Shifting out of her seat and onto her feet.

“From the centre of the planet? Perhaps. Which planet? This planet? If so, how did it end up with the Anx? Making them all Anx-ious – And where else may we expect to find them?”

She plucked a cup from a tray. Light and unyielding it carried sweet, warm liquid between graceful fingers, to her lips. The Pale drank her cloudy tea, eyes staring out the of the bridge viewport.

"Perhaps" A pause, her fingers turning the cup, eyes turning down to the dimmed reflection in its surface “Where there is civilisation, there is crime. All things bought and sold are seen, if not handled, by the black market. Find that, and we may find the stones.”

It was an uncertain path, but the one that best suited her ways. Others would go to the foundries, to the councils, march the streets. She walked a shaded path.

​

-*-*-*-​

Location: The Grand Bazaar.
Objective: Probe underground contacts for information about the stones.

No retinue followed Darth Ophidia as she strode through the darkened Grand Bazaar of the Pho Ph’eahian streets. She looked all the bit the stranger; dark clad and hooded, eyes of fire and skin of ash. Her presence in the Force was subdued, leaving barely a trace of her dark aura. Yet, she did nothing to hide herself. The blue diamonds printed on the back of her cloak swayed with every motion she made, like the back of a viper displaying its scales.

The Pho Ph’eahians were more reluctant to speak with their new masters than most – Which was remarkable considering the circumstances – And it gave her a certain unease. This unease did not surface, but she knew it was there. They were afraid of something, and had been for a long while; a nameless terror

From beneath you, it devours.​

Enough to drive one mad.

She was directed to corners where no-one stood, left for chores, no simple asking had given fruit. And she had difficulties discerning who here was legitimate, and who ran with dirtier deeds. The Rattataki had grown up among the seediest, shadiest characters on Rattatak. Now, she sought the petty dealers of a Pho Ph’eahian back-alley.

Her domineering presence shrunk even further; her back hunched and hands came together at her chest in mock protectiveness. She knew exactly what she looked in this moment: She looked weak, and she slipped into a corner that made her feel like knives would be drawn if she lingered.

 

[Atlas Kane]

Location: City Council Chambers
Objective: Trade Knowledge, investigate the Pho'pheans

The robed figure was fast, which made them even more suspicious. Atlas had to break into a proper dash to catch up to them near the Council's steps. The acute headache plaguing him was affecting him more than he had hoped, though the sleepiness had mostly gone now. The stimcaff the Pho'phean sold was really working, a miracle considering the litres of it Atlas had already consumed over the past week. He was a few metres behind the figure when he came to a halt.

"Excuse me, kind stranger, but I could not shake this feeling of familiarity with a certain object of yours." He tried to sound as coherent as possible, he thought he did an ok job. His voice had only wavered marginally. The Sith raised one arm, letting the stone hang at about the same height as his mask's visor. "I believe you have something similar? I would seek to trade any knowledge about it that the other may not already possess ... if you would be so inclined as to indulge me in this matter, that is." He sounded more confident this time. The crimson stone shone brilliantly in the dim light, it stood in contrast to the dull, matte brass of his bracers which bore the same colour as the rest of the few armoured plates on his person. His other arm was still hidden behind his robes, only exposing part of the stimcaff, though his lightsaber remained hidden.

Only moments after he had uttered his own words did he hear two Pho'pheans loudly yelling at one another. Their noisy voices didn't do much to help his headache. His eyes wandered past the robed figure to the two four-armed creatures that, all things considered, at least seemed well-dressed. The two seemed of differing opinions on a very important matter. Their conversation implied something quite secret being discussed, a research project on something that was affecting the Pho'pheans on a large scale and turning them into something unfit to be free in the public. Something that spreads through means unknown to the Pho'pheans. The information immediately caused Atlas to be very intrigued. He took another big sip from the stimcaff, his mind was feeling clearer than before all of a sudden. He also caught a hint of the Light Side from the stranger, a detailed that made his brow arc slightly.

His gaze wandered back to the robed figure at the same time as his posture straightened, adopting a more dignified and confident appearance. He finished off the stimcaff, throwing the empty cup towards a trash can nearby, making sure it landed inside using the Force. He proceeded to point towards the two council members.

"Perhaps we should ask them about these curious stones too, hm, kind stranger?" His voice almost back to its usual cold and precise tone, underlined with just a hint of excitement. There was the hint of a smile on his face, though the expressionless mask betrayed no such indicator. It grew wider when he sensed another presence, one strongly embedded within the Light Side of the Force. This would be an interesting ... evening?

[member="Taeli Raaf"], [member="Zylah Dvale"].

 

[H3xle]

'From Beneath You, It Devours'

Anora didn't scream as she bolted upright from a deep sleep, she had far too much control for that. She didn't make any sound except for what her movement caused, the whisper of the sheet sliding from her near her shoulders to puddle about her waist and the soft creak as her weight became more centralized on the mattress. Her eyes moved around the room, as her flared nostrils took in controlled breaths of air to calm her racing heart. She felt a bead of cold sweat draw a path down her back, crossing her spine as it wended its way towards the mattress. As she knew she would, she found nothing and no one in her room, a place that was spartan save for a single item decorating the wall over her bed.

She slipped from the bed, lightly stepping to the sink in the small adjoining bathroom and splashed water on her face. She combed her wet fingers through her hair, then looked herself in the eyes silently for a few moments. As her mind cleared, the feeling of the words that woke her faded away, her mind closing off the foreign influence. Despite that, the shadow of it still echoed in her mind. She moved back to her bed side, looked at her bed for a moment before turning to the nightstand beside it and pressing a stud.

"Bridge." Came a voice over the intercom.

"Status report." She ordered, trusting the officer on watch to recognize her voice.

"Ma'am, we've just completed maneuvers, pulling into geo orbit over the area where our teams are deployed." He replied. She knew that when she had laid down to sleep, they had been part of a patrolling element just outside of the planet's gravity well.

"Very well, I'm heading groundside. Keep me updated on any critical updates, but everything else goes through Commander Mayhew." She said, turning to the drawers beneath her bed and pulling out underclothes and a uniform.

"Aye, ma'am." She pressed the stud again, closing the link, as she proceeded to dress. Once she had her uniform on, she moved to a stand in the corner and put on some armor. It was mildly unusual for a naval officer to have combat armor, but Anora strived to keep herself in good training in the case of boarding or the odd chance of ground combat. Now that she was the Captain of her own frigate, it was the tradition for all officers on board to stay sharp.

She glanced at the wooden panel hung above her bed. On it, in ancient script, was the phrase 'Midwan kash nenx aukotijas'.

She moved swiftly from her quarters to the lift, took the lift to the small hangar, and boarded a shuttle for the surface. On the shuttle she armed herself with a pistol and a knife. She didn't really expect trouble, what with the collective skill level of some of their assets on the ground, but it never paid to be unprepared.

With a span of minutes between leaving her ship and touching down on the ground, she sat back in her seat, pulled a cigarillo out of a protected pocket and lit it. Rank had it's privileges. The dark of the hold was lit by running lights, and the cherry of her smoke as the pilot transited down the gravity well to the ground. While she smoked, she tried to not think about what was drawing her down to the ground. She knew that they were here because stones had been spreading out from this planet and had some strange feeling in the Force. She didn't have much education in the Force, and that lack of knowledge mixed with the strange waking and pull down to the ground was trying to tie knots in her stomach. Each pull of sweet smoke into her lungs soothed the knots with chemical smoothness.

Soon, she was on the ground at the spaceport, flicking the butt of her cigarillo to the ground as she stepped out of shuttle. She hit the ground, and strode towards the center of the city. The words that woke her had pulled her to the planet, but her logic pulled her towards the Bazaar as the best place to disseminate the stones. No matter how much she couldn't explain any of it, she felt deep in her bones that the words that woke her and the stones they were here for were linked.

[member="Darth Caecus"]

 

[Vaylin]

Location: The Foundry - Lava Outflow
Objective: Search for clues about the Stones
[member="Darth Caecus"]

"Do you smell that?" Vaylin asked, as the trio trekked on further towards the Foundry. The closer they got, the more apparent and pungent the scent became. A mix of metal and sulphur, of the blistering heat lava; flowing and smelted, mingling with something else entirely. It wasn't until they had gotten close enough, that Vaylin was able to identify it.

The burning of flesh.

Even Vaylin wrinkled her nose at that, looking towards the colossal structure. She had rarely come across the smell, and there was only one recent time that came to mind. Although those were bodies being burned on pyres, not being cast into furnaces or lava. Either way, the source of it was coming from somewhere deep in the Foundry. The Zabrak turned around, looking to her two companions to gauge their reactions before she crouched down.

She brushed her hand across and through the ash that coated the ground before them. It was a fine quality, but layered too. Left unattended for a long while it seemed.

Vaylin's head snapped up when she felt the ground shake. She reached out with the Force, and picked up a mass of presences nearby, separate to their own group and centralized towards the Foundry's entrance. A few stuck out more clearly, those of the Zambranos. One she easily recognised as the Dark Lord, another she connected to the Saaraishash and the third was one she wasn't overly familiar, but could sense the similar familiarity with the other two. Amongst those were also two others; Sith, one Vaylin recognized and the other an unknown.

"I think we should find another way in, any objections?" She enquired, standing up to the her full height and turning to face Elensa and Onley. If the Zambrano horde were going to be kicking in the front door, then it could potentially be used as a distraction. "If not, then we should head around the side. A factory like this has to have some type of outflows we can take advantage of."

​

Outflows - [member="Elensa Jari"] | [member="Onley Xiangu"]​

​

Main Entrance - [member="Darth Carnifex"] | [member="Darth Prazutis"] | [member="Venthis Zambrano"] | [member="Darth Banshee"] | [member="Wolvren Malafactor"]​

 

[Elijah Black]

Location: City Council Chambers
OOC Note: In possession of one of the mysterious stones! Oooo
Nearby: [member="Taeli Raaf"] | [member="Atlas Kane"]

Zylah’s near jog broke into a slow halt as she reached the Council steps. Two natives seemed to be up there arguing. Another figure was on the steps as well… Something about her made it nearly possible to look away, even as a voice behind her called out to her. Excuse me kind stranger. It was only when the voice continued she snapped out of it and turned to face him. Uh oh.

He was definitely not native. Fully armoured, decidedly not a Jedi, there wasn’t too much doubt in her mind that he had come with the invasion fleet. She knew the drill. However, had he identified her as a Jedi yet? And did it matter? She had bumped into several classes of Sith at this point. Some very eager to hack before talk, others quite the opposite. The armour did have her picture something closer to the former, but she was happy to entertain him… Not as if she had a wide array of options at her disposal. And he was being cordial enough.

Zylah turned, wrapped up in her brown robes but without a helmet or a mask there was no hiding her face, her fair, practically silver white skin, blue eyes, and silver coloured hair in the back. “That’s a very well educated guess.” she said in a flat, but not unkind tone. “I do have something similar. But I’m afraid my knowledge is very limited. Perhaps we could be of use to each other” maybe he knew more. But she had her doubts that he would reveal it to her, at least not the full picture. Although perhaps this was a day to overcome prejudices.

Their brief chat was interrupted by the discussion on the steps up ahead. She couldn’t make out much of what they were saying, but what she did hear was worrisome. Was a portion of their population under quarantine? Was this going to be another Hoylin?

“Nice throw.” she remarked with the hint of a smirk as she turned her head back to look at him, although most of her posture was turned towards the stairs. It was almost as if she was subconsciously leeching off of his increased confidence, getting a heightened measure of it herself. “They don’t seem too eager to chat with us, armoured stranger. But maybe they would be more talkative inside?” What was she doing? She very nearly added ‘how about you stand guard outside and I go check it out’, but there was no hope of that succeeding.

Now it was almost getting too hard to ignore. There was another presence. A robed figure. Light. But there was more to it than that. She felt… Familiar. She? How could she be certain? It was just a robe figure. Surely it couldn’t… It couldn’t be. “Corvus?” Zylah surprised herself with the sound of her own voice, calling out to the figure. She hadn’t registered the thought to call out to the individual. It just… Happened. And with it her heart started racing, filled with expectation.

 

[Elensa Jari]

Location | The Foundry - Lava Outflow
Objective | Infiltrate the Foundry
Companions | [member="Vaylin"] | [member="Onley Xiangu"]

Now that Vaylin had drawn her attention to it, Elensa could tell that something was wrong here: a foundry was a place where one might purify metals and run off slag, removing the impurities that would make those earthly deposits less than useless. You'd expect smoke, acrid fumes rising, released by the molten heat. But there was more here than mere byproduct of the refining process, yes: a sickly-sweet odour that didn't fit. The sort of thing you'd be unlikely to find in many places: only those where death was met by fiery immolation, no corpses to be left in the wake of it all.

Glad for the protective covering of her veil, giving her some slight remove from it, Elensa nodded in agreement with the older woman. She, too, could sense the dark powers within the facility, and knew well that the Lords of the Sith were making their way in there. Barging down the front doors, and inadvertantly offering us the gift of a distraction. If all eyes were on the Sith Lords entering the facility as they should, perhaps it might be possible for some lesser Sith to enter from another avenue, perhaps see that which none wanted them to discover.

Shouldering her lightsaber pike, the strap attached to the weapon tightening across her chest, the young woman nodded her agreement of the plan and started forward, boots depressing beneath the dry ash with each step, sending up acrid arcs of grey-black gas as it was crushed under her heels. The company of the others felt odd to her - she had ever preferred to work alone - but Vaylin's plan made a sort of sense to her. You never know what we might find when all eyes are focused elsewhere. She did not know the skills of the other two, but Elensa had a feeling they would both be skilled at infiltration. If not, they shall learn quickly.

But why bodies? Why burning flesh? What could possibly be going on in there? Were this a Sith world, she would have assumed that the dead were simply being burned as a consequence of some sick experiment conducted by one who thought only of lives as fuel for their powers. Or perhaps this would simply be the disposal of those that had stood in the way of a Sith Lord, and found themselves executed en masse for their foolishness. But we would have felt that, and known of any such thing. Something else was going on here and, for reasons she couldn't quite pin down, the Hapan felt that it was important to discover the nature of it, as much as to complete their mission and retrieve more stones.

"Do you sense the death that accompanies such a funeral?", she asked, projecting her thoughts out to the other two with her, in the only fashion she might use to communicate that they would readily understand. "We should feel it, shouldn't we? Life extinguished and discarded."

That was the part that concerned her. All she could feel was darkness: impenetrable, but strong. Something distinct from that projected by the two beside her, and from the Sith that she could sense within. Beyond that...nothingness. Another mystery they would need to resolve. But we're getting close to something. That much was all she knew for certain.

 

[Darth Caecus]

The Foundry
[member="Darth Prazutis"] [member="Venthis Zambrano"] [member="Darth Carnifex"] [member="Darth Banshee"] [member="Wolvren Malafactor"]

The large main doors rocketed open, blown completely from their hinged. Unlocked, the doors had offered no resistance. The Pho Ph'eahians within however?

​That was a different story.

"A quick death? HA!"

It wasn't clear just where the sound had come from. Within the entryway, the Foundry spread before them in a warren of columns and arches, lit by the glow of luminous liquid metal and the magma from beneath. The smell of burned flesh was stronger here.

"There is no death," came another voice. "Death isn't the end. It always comes back. Always hungry."

"From beneath you"

A dozen voices sounded in unison all around them, including from the foreman at Carnifex's feet.

"It devours."

Armed with tools- laughable, in the face of the Sith- hammers and wrenches, the glow of a blow torch, tongs heated until they glowed- they converged. It would not be a battle.

It would be a massacre.

ooc:

Spoiler

Slaughter them all for their impudence or not, have fun!

---

[member="Vaylin"] [member="Onley Xiangu"] [member="Elensa Jari"]

The outflow was treacherous. The slow, gulping river of magma looked sedate, but the heat thrown was stifling. One slip and there would be nothing left of a foot or hand that came within inches, let alone pushed through that glowing, inviting surface.

It would lead into the bowels of the Foundry. Not merely a stink there, but a stench. Lit only by the magma, in the distance they could see figures moving. A pile of something, twice the height of a Pho Ph'eahian. One of the shuffling figures moved, picking up an oddly flat and limp item from the pile and moving toward an enormous furnace.

ooc:

Spoiler

dun dun dun...... it's a pile of bodies. But they appear to be deflated. As if hollowed out from the inside.

---

The Grand Bazaar
[member="Darth Ophidia"] [member="Vereshin"] [member="Harley"] [member="Drios Rapux"] [member="Anora Demici"]

The sense of unease in the Bazaar became an almost physical weight. Simply the presence of these strangers was enough. Certain individuals seemed to melt away, as if preparing to be elsewhere if they could manage it. Anywhere but here with these uncomfortable, question asking strangers.

ooc:

Spoiler

Ya'all gotta do something for anything to happen. This isn't a scene that will happen passively. I'll wait

---

City Council Chambers
[member="Atlas Kane"] [member="Taeli Raaf"] [member="Zylah Dvale"]

The two stone holders, as they drew near each other, both would feel something odd. As if their stones each grew from completely solid to just the wrong side of viscous for a heartbeat before solidifying again. Odd. Must be their imagination.

The two Pho Ph'eahians that had been arguing headed deeper into the Council building. With a glance at each other, they separated, one heading up a flight of stairs, and the other down.

ooc:

Spoiler

Up or down, the choice is yours. Up and you find an office with the followed alien inside. From him you might find answers. Down, your quarry disappears behind a heavily enforced, locked door. What might be behind it?

---

Outskirts
[member="Kor Vexen"]

The female Pho Ph'eahian swayed slightly, her eyes glazing, staring out at a point somewhere beyond him, as if she could gaze right through his face.

"City Council," she murmured. "Took them. My daughters. My son. All three of them had it."

Her eyes suddenly sharpened, snapping back into focus as she looked up at him.

"From beneath you, it devours," she whispered, with the solemnity of a child. Something swirled in those milky eyes, a hint of shadow. Slowly, as if she wanted to see what the fabric of his robes felt like, she reached out toward his arm. He caught a glimpse of something black, viscous and thick on the palm of her hand.

ooc:

Spoiler

Let her touch you? Drink her soup? Back the *f* up? Cut her down? Or none of the above? Choose wisely.

 

[Darth Bellum]

Location | Outskirts -> City Council Chambers
Objective | Further Investigate
Company | Alone

---

---

---

Vexen remained in his kneeling position as he listened to the Pho Ph'eahian speak and talk. Did it appear that maybe this was some effort of quarantine and containment maybe? Something was amiss that he was not aware of. Had it been truly about quarantine the female would have been taken...Or perhaps the children were taken because they were clean and the mother left because she was infected by whatever corruption had been brought to this species. As of now there were too many unknowns and he was not getting the answers he sought. His head would shift as the Pho Ph'eahian seemed to snap out of the trance he was putting her under and instead began to speak as if she were under the influence of another.

One of his forearms was rested on his knee, his current posture concealing the lightsaber that was ready in the other hand. With the current situation, he could easily ignite his saber and send the blade right through the alien and be done with it. He felt no emotion or sympathy for her situation, nor would he feel anything should she perish; his sole purpose for being here was to seek information. However, there might be something more he could get from this female as she began to reach out to him. The arm resting on his knee would reach out, clamping down with a gentle, but very firm grip on her forearm, keeping clear of what substance he spotted on her palm. He would stow away his lightsaber as he attempted to hold the Pho Ph'eahian in place.

Assuming she did not try to immediately struggle and attempt to pounce on him, his freed hand would lift up, an unseen hand reaching out in the form of the Force as it began to pull and draw whatever viscous substance was on her palm. It moved in globules as it began to collect in an amorphous sphere in the air as Vexen attempted to extract every last bit as a specimen to be analyzed and researched. Only until all the viscous substance had been drawn from the Pho Ph'eahian did he release his steel grip on her.

A small clear vial would be pulled from his belt as the end opened up and he was careful to guide and fill the vial with the substance before screwing it shut. He would put the vial away as he used the Force to throw the excess globe of the substance away at a fair distance. His hand slides in front of the Pho Ph'eahian's face, placing her in a near catatonic state that resembled stasis, freezing her to prevent any further action. He would stare at the Pho Ph'eahian as they were frozen. He gained nothing by allowing the female to live, but he also gained nothing by killing her. Perhaps as some faux gratitude for providing a sample that can be analyzed, he decided to leave her be as he spoke, his voice rough and vocoded, speaking with a hint of melodrama "Perhaps you will be reunited with your children...Or perhaps they are already dead. What happens to you is no longer my concern...Your fate will be decided by whatever comes to pass..."

He reached down to his cape as he tore off a section of the cloth and wrapped it around the female's palm before tieing it off. Perhaps it was to feed his ego that he chose a more noble approach, or perhaps it was still the essence of light since his last feast that he chose this direction. He stood up as he turned to the horizon, to his new destination; The City Council Chambers. He would begin to walk away from the hut with the sample safely clipped to his belt. He mutters quietly to himself, "From beneath you it devours...We shall see what will be devoured then..." The stasis that held the female Pho Ph'eahian would disappear, but only after Vexen had long since put distance between the hut he was at and his path to the City. More questions, and yet, still none were answered. He wondered how his fellow Sith had faired in their searches.

 

[Darth Carnifex]

The Dark Lord's sulfuric eyes narrowed, and at his beckoning the lightsaber clipped at his side flew into his outstretched hand. A three meter blade of sunfire erupted from the weapon's emitter, enveloping the gloomy surroundings in a brilliant blanket of crimson. Yet still they approached, murderous madness churning in their eyes as they brought clubs, wrenches, smithy hammers, and a whole manner of assorted makeshift weapons to bear against the encroaching Sith and their barbarous legions.

"As much as it pains me to agree, you're right... Death is not an ending. It is a passageway to something greater, but that door will forever be closed to vermin like you!"

The Foreman at his feet snarled and produced a shiv in one of his multiple hands, lunging to skewer the Dark Lord with maddening fervor. The Epicanthix warrior-king easily sidestepped his sloppy attack and brought his blade up above his head and then back down to cleave the Pho Ph'eahian in twain. That seemed to signal the carnage as the rest of the natives surged forth to attack the Sith, and were met by the indomitable ranks of the Dark Legion.

"Clear the factory! Leave none alive!"

It would give time for the others to hopefully come across something of value in the meantime.

​

[member="Darth Prazutis"] | [member="Venthis Zambrano"] | [member="Darth Banshee"] | [member="Wolvren Malafactor"] | [member="Vaylin"] | [member="Onley Xiangu"] | [member="Elensa Jari"]​

 

[Wolvren Malefactor]

Location: Factory
Objective: Massacre the vermin

Wol'v heard what the Sith lord had said 'Clear the factory! Leave none alive!' Wol'v would be happy to oblige

He quickly crouched his blades already out as he rocket's forward using force propulsion to sending like a missile outta hell itself as he shot straight into the small horde of theses vile swine.

'How dare they speak to him and his master that way as well as the other Sith that were present these filthy derelict cretins shall pay for even breathing the same air as them.' Wol'v would think to himself as he hurdled towards the enemy.

"RRRRAAAAHHH!" Went his roar as he shot into the front lines of the on coming horde.

He opens with a wide slash putting full ferocity into his fighting making unpredictable deadly strikes to anyone in his vicinity putting his Juyo and Soseru to use only pushing aggressively while dealing with multiple of his enemy's at ounce he tore through a chest hacked a leg and continued on cutting his way through the center of the horde like a swift rage filled reaper collecting souls.

"DIE!" would be roared out from under his mask and heard as he sent a small group of them around 3-4 of them flying with a Force Roar as he continued causing as much damage to the horde itself as he could going against a group this size he easily continued his ferocious attack not even feeling the idea of exhaustion growing from the amount of real adrenaline he had coursing through his veins as he continued culling the herd.

[member="Darth Carnifex"] / [member="Darth Banshee"] / [member="Venthis Zambrano"] / [member="Darth Prazutis"]

{-Stats,Desc,Gear-}

 

[Yaadri Osi-Yyn]

The Foundry,
Pho Ph'eah.

Resistance. Something not only the Dark Lord but the entire empire would not stand for. The Foundry had been surrounded by the Empire's forces, it was merely extermination at this point. The Legion would charge in slaughtering all insight, along with them Venthis charged forwards as he was running he would seemingly vanish into a dark purple smoke then re-appear up in the rafters and drop down onto one of the workers, slitting his throat with a small blade, his blood squirting across the face of Venthis. With little time, he would look up and throw the knife into another's head with deadly precision.

He would wipe his face with his sleeve, the blood seemingly smudging though still clearly present across his usually pristine face. Screams and shouts of all languages called out throughout the building, it was lovely. Venthis made his ay way over and reclaimed his knife from the forehead of the worker he had thrown it into prior.

Then he stood above all else, watching the onslaught. Quickly leaping over the edge, onto various platforms he would land again near his Father. He would turn to him and give him a devilish grin, turning back.

"Victory will be ours." He stated with such confidence.

[member="Darth Carnifex"] | [member="Darth Prazutis"] | [member="Wolvren Malafactor"] | [member="Darth Banshee"] | [member="Darth Caecus"]

 

[Darth Sibilus]

The Grand Bazaar

"Be silent. A stench lingers over this market and eyes linger upon us and tongues are beginning to wag. They are afraid, but afraid of what?" Drios suddenly exclaimed in a hushed whisper to [member="Harley"], raising a hand to stop her sentence just after it had begun. The uneasiness of the locals was apparent to the Sith, and he presumed it would be just as palpable to the other Knight stood before him.

A strange feeling suddenly surrounded Drios, a sense of unease and the sensation that something drastic was about to happen. Something inside of him commanded him to turn around and without resistance his body complied. Two great blue fists were flying through the air toward Drios' face. One was quickly slapped out of danger, but the other connected with a nose-crunching crrrack, and a welt immediately began to form on Drios' skin. It was apparent that his nose was broken, and he stepped back in a daze as the market began to spin around him.

Another flurry of punches came his way, each one with as much power as the last, until Drios mustered the resolve to extend his arms and push the attacker back with as much telekinetic power he could summon. Then, he rather crudely staggered into a more upright position and seized his throat via the Force, applying a tight yet not fatal grip on his trachea.

"Harley, can you bind his hands? I think we need a little chat with his one." Drios snarled, wiping the blood which trickled down his chin and dropped onto his cloak like a mountain stream.

 

[Vereshin]

Location: The Grand Bazaar
Objective: Interrogate a citizen
Allies: [member="Harley"], [member="Drios Rapux"], [member="Anora Demici"]

Vereshin felt Harley's scowl as greeted Drios and pretended he did not notice. Swallowing his frustration, he could not imagine how anything he had just said could have upset her and only sighed as she grumbled next to him. While on a mission of importance to the Sith, he did not deem it appropriate to refer to as anything more than an associate. He scanned the four-armed aliens crowding over the stalls across the Bazaar and tried to comb the atmosphere for the lingering presence of the stones.

Before Vereshin could respond, the fists of one of the citizens collided with Drios' face. The Pho Ph'eans had become hostile to the Sith investigating their home and one so boldly lay his his hands on the other knight. Stepping backwards abruptly as the assault took place, Vereshin extended a wave a sent a short burst of lightning into the form of the Pho Ph'ean. While he groaned and fell limply into Drios' grasp, Harley moved to bind his wrists. Casting a gaze over the area for a secluded place, the Sith motioned to his fellows to follow him away from the main strip of the market place.

"Quickly, bring him out of the public eye so we don't draw attention." Vereshin walked ahead of Harley and Drios and found the looming shadows of an alleyway. Graffiti lined the walls bearing messages of protest against the Sith. The damp smell of filth and smoke choked the small passageways leading behind the block. They walked into the first alley which broke away into two paths behind the back door of what appeared to be a restaurant. As Drios planted the lavender skinned alien up against a wall, Vereshin stood before him with his hands held behind his coat, gazing in disapproval over the features of the man.

"We are looking for something." The sorcerer waved a hand over the face of the Pho Ph'ean and began to disassemble his mind. He inserted his reach in the Force through his head and combed his mental vision over years of memories. "I think you know what it is." The man only spat on the ground and cursed in his native tongue. He did not appear to understand basic, leaving Vereshin to rely entirely on psychological probing. As he scoured the man's perception for any images of the stones, one vision appeared more and more common. The image of a female Pho Ph'ean, striding into a stall beneath red robes and purveying ornaments of arcane power.

 

[Hailey Sosis]

Location: Bazaar
Allies: [member="Vereshin"] [member="Drios Rapux"]

She smiled as she got told go and bind his hands, she just happened to have some pink fluffy handcuffs, she was going to use later with her puppy. She grinned as she slapped them on the alien, and helped drag him to back street. She used her hand to cover his mouth, the way she did this, anyone would thought she had mugged someone before. She followed her puppies lead, she had forgotten about him not using her name before. She had forgotten due to chance of violence something she was good at, though she was thinking of buying a red berry. As she saw student trying to look cool wearing one, and she wanted to fit in some of his freinds. As she dragged him into back street, she took let one of her hands free and then cuffed them to a railing. She then knicked his phone and wallet, she did it so quick no one noticed, anyone may of thought she rob people. She then moved to side while the other two interrogated him, she going to check his phone for clues. Lucky he was logged into forcebook, and she started looking through all his messages, and his chats for clues.

 

[Onley Xiangu]

LOCATION: The Foundry | Lava Outflow → Stinky Bowels
BUDDIES: [member="Elensa Jari"] | [member="Vaylin"]

The one who spoke in to his mind was right. The smell was overwhelming - though it wasn’t the flesh that bothered him so much as the hair, burning putrid hair - and yet there was nothing in the Force to accompany it. That was far more disturbing than anything else to him. Foreboding… “Everything feels masked to me. Dampened,” he shared, realizing it was not just the death he thought he should feel. The atmosphere of the place itself seemed surrounded by cotton, some greater secret hidden behind a veil that molded and obscured the more he pressed at it.

They traveled along the tunnel which convinced him to stop thinking about the delicate features of the dark-haired Zabrak for as long as he was toeing along a potentially deadly flow of lava. It was unbearable, threatening to sear the flesh off his toes despite the short extension of volcanic rock they had to traverse on either side.

However, he might have taken the burning rock to what they happened on after the mouth of the Outflow widened to let them pass.

In all likelihood, the light of the burning molten pyre on which the workers threw deflated bodies would obscure their vision of the relative darkness of the Outflow’s mouth, hopefully preventing the trio being spotted. But that didn’t stop Onley from signaling his partners as he lowered down closer to the ground, moving forward in a crouch until he could find cover to watch the monsters from behind. The aroma here was sweet in that way one knew it shouldn’t be, burnt hair filling his nostrils and forcing him to pull his shirt up over his nose if only for temporary relief.

It took Onley a moment to realize what they were disposing of, but when it dawned on him he felt his eyes widen slightly. The bodies they held seemed cored out, their skin wrinkled in great sheets around muscles that had withered. Their stomachs seemed open not by rips or tears, but a simple sinking that was somehow worse than the gore it might have been. Eerie. Onley heard ringing in his ears. He wanted to get a closer look. But those shuffling workers were enormous… it would probably be better not to be seen for as long as possible.

“We need a look at those corpses,” he murmured. “Anyone got any distraction ideas?”