What Do You Have For Us, Korriban?

[Julius Sedaire]

Location:Korriban Surface - Valley of the Dark Lords - Cave Chamber
Team:Darth Venefica | Zambrano the Hutt | Elensa Jari ('A' is for AWESOME ya'll)

Stopping for a moment, Ostanes calmed himself, gathering the Force to him and welling it in his body, covering it in a fine mesh of energy in his mind. He waited as the beast eyed him, watched it hesitate for the barest of moments as he nodded to the Sith Lord leading his party and suddenly turned. Reaction times boosted by the force, he blurred in motion hurling a rock to ricochet off it's head and force it to focus on the young Acolyte more than anything else. There was reasoning behind the brash act, for he knew one way or the other it was coming for him and his team, no matter what. If it were focused and enraged on him, it would free the others to strike as needed. And he knew for a fact he could move faster than it, for a short time.

"Right, bringing it to you then, cut it down!"

Turning again, he blurred into motion, conservatively using application of Force Speed to dart ahead of the lunging abomination, blurring in a line roughly to bring the thing right past them, but not directly for them. There was just a faint hope that they could bring it down before he ran out of juice, so to speak.

 

[Darth Timoris]

Location: Entering the Valley of the Dark Lords
Group: B
Allies: [member="Amaethon"] | [member="Yvette Dusong"] | [member="Vi'kas Mirtis"] | [member="Darth Arcanix"]

Melori's first thought was to consider which side of the valley they'd be working - because this would affect the tombs they would visit. As she stood at the mouth of the valley, she was aware it was much wider here. The stone walls were sheer and steep and opened out into a lower valley with rocky mountain ledges. She stared at the six towering monoliths and wondered where they'd go first. Some held no interest to her but Naga Sadow's work with illusions, but it was Ludo Kressh's abilities with Force Rage that excited her the most.

 

[Via Dolorosa]

Group A​

[member="Ostanes"]​

[member="Elensa Jari"]​

[member="Zambrano the Hutt"]​

​

Location​

Surface of Korriban...Outskirts of The Valley of the Dark Lords...Cave​

​

​

The rock, when it connected, only seemed to enrage the mighty beast further. She had dealt with one of these creatures only once before, and then she was only an Acolyte who barely survived that encounter. From that day she had studied up on the famed monster, the Terentatek, in hopes of finding any one specific weakness to exploit in case of another chance encounter. To her dismay, there was none minus their intelligent factor; they were dumb beasts. Regardless if that was true or not, this beast was outnumbered which gave an advantage to the group.​

​

"Be wary of it's tusks and the four claws on the paw! They are highly venomous," the Sith Lord yelled, her voice bouncing off the cavern walls.​

​

As if her mere words had some how spilled it's secrets, the offended beast turned it's attention to the Dagobah Sith who only smiled and ignited her weapon; the deep metallic blue blade hissing to life. She stepped toward the abomination showing no fear of the creature and the creature, being cautious of the number of prey, slowly stepped toward her.​

​

"That's right big fella...focus on us," she spoke with a mocking tone in her voice. ​

​

While the Terentatek advanced on her, she casually stole glances to the ceiling of the cave calculating the right moment to surprise the beast, and finish him. Her prey took two more steps and she unmasked her plan by using the Force to rip a sharp pointed and serrated loose stalactite, allowing gravity to do it's job. The plummeting weapon pierced the beast above the right shoulder and continued through into it pierced and pinned the outstretched right foot to the cavern floor; leaving the creature impaled but alive.​

​

"And the rest is all academic from here," she jested through the creature's howls of pain. "We here Terentatek claws and tusks fetch a high price on certain markets."​

​

Darth Venefica powered down her weapon and returned it back from whence it came just as she passed the immobilized beast. The Acolytes can hack away at for all she cared, she was more interested in seeing what lied deeper in the cave; and why a lone Terentatek was playing sentry.​

 

[Elensa Jari]

Location: Korriban Surface - Just Outside The Valley of the Dark Lords
Team: [member="Darth Venefica"] | [member="Zambrano the Hutt"] | [member="Ostanes"]


The battle ended nearly as quickly as it begun, a subtle but significant play by their accompanying Sith Lord making short work of whatever otherwise might have served to wipe out the group, Acolytes first. A great howl of agonising pain accompanied the strike, the stalactite impaling the monster with the force of a meteor strike, knocking it off it's gait and essentially pinning it to the sandy ground beneath their feet, great arms and legs flailing out in agony - a danger even though the Terentarek would weaken quickly and likely endure a slow, torturous death.

Suffering is only a gift to the living, Elensa thought, observing the monstrous creature with a closed expression, curious in some respects, but serving to conceal the sense of melancholy that she felt observing such a thing. The Jedi always taught me that life is to be respected, but the Sith also show you how fragile life is. Does that make it contemptible, or all the more precious? It was something she often wondered, surrounded as she was now by beings who would kill at the slightest provocation, feeling that a failure to survive their attack was indicative of weakness, and therefore unforgiveable. In truth, she was still unsure of that.

The Terentatek's growls of pain and frustration were growing weaker, and though mortally injured, she sensed that it still held a good deal of energy within it - such a strong creature would not go quietly, that was clear, nor quickly. Not without help. A soft sigh, the only sound her damaged vocal cords were capable of making, leapt from her lips with gentle motion, followed by the more violent movement of her leaping upwards, propelled with a touch of Force energy, towards the broad head armour plating that covered the majority of it's head and torso. A quick reversal of her glowing blue lightsaber, and she thrust it straight down between her feet, the energetic blade hissing with loud report, pushed through the plating and down into the skull beneath, Elensa pushing her weapon down right through to the hilt, then withdrawing it and silencing the blade with a quick contact of the activation stud.

With a great shudder and a last roar, the creature fell still beneath her, allowing her to jump off it's back and onto the ground while it completed that nerveless collapse, the life force it had possessed gone in a single moment of contact with a weapon that it could not protect itself from, regardless of how formidable it had appeared in life. Another sigh issued from her lips, and she returned her lightsaber to her belt, gazing on the beautifully deadly creature impassively, two tears rolling down her cheeks as she watched it, mute testament to her feelings on the matter.

A quick battle, ended with little aplomb, but it earned the honour of a quick death, she thought inwardly, knowing she could do little to express her thoughts to the others. To linger in such suffering is not something that serves as testament to life. Death should maintain a certain purity. Only life should be tainted by pain, for only then does one learn how to truly live. Dying like that could offer no lessons, beyond the understanding that a mistake had been made in joining battle. It could not help it's own nature, though: a creature of darkness acts in response to what it finds around it, just as we do. To finish the suffering of it, so that the others could not relish in it's pain and in their little victory...that was the least she could do.

Perhaps that would be viewed as weakness, that final offer of mercy, granted without request or chance of reprieve. Many Sith considered merciful action to be the act of a mind too burdened by a sense of morality, but she did not see it as such - what power could one gain simply prolonging the suffering of one that was nearly unable to feel it, and certainly to learn from it? Such only feeds our ego: the need to gloat over that which we dominate. And it was not the Acolytes that had been victorious here, either: that was in the power of Darth Venefica, no other. And, in her mind, there was nothing more to be done here - I think she'd already moved on, once it's death was certain. To allow the Acolytes to stand and inflict more damage and pain would merely feed their sense of having contributed, when in truth they had only to stand back and watch. We gain nothing there but a false sense of complacency. That, too, would be wrong.

Taking one last glance at the corpse of one destroyed by a Sith Lord, the young woman shook her head once more and stepped past it, the tears glistening on her cheeks the only testament to the thoughts she could not share here. There was still work to be done, and there would probably be more blood shed by the time they left Korriban. One more scream of agony now added to the cacophony whispering in my mind, Elensa noted in that melancholy monologue. But this one at least understands peace now, in all it's mindless finality. That was a moment of blessed relief.

 

[Julius Sedaire]

Location:Korriban Surface - Valley of the Dark Lords - Cave Chamber
Team:Darth Venefica | Zambrano the Hutt| Elensa Jari('A' is for AWESOME ya'll)

Ostanes watched his fellow acolyte leap and kill the terentatek rather impassively, and then shrugged, walking up to the corpse with a glint of fascination in his eyes. Mostly ignored were the easily viewable tears of the one who had ended the beasts' death throes, and for that he found a mild irritant. There was much to be gained by watching the death of a creature, even one so simple-minded and ravening as this one had been in the end. The key of death unlocked life really, for it showed you much about the strengths of such a thing. Indeed it would show you much about the strengths of anything, even those sentient. And it held a certain power that fueled the darkside, a sort of emotional catalyst. The one with the blue blade was an odd one, and one he would have to watch with interest.

Still striding forward, Ostanes produce a thin, razor sharp scalpel from within a pocket and approached the terentatek. The hide was quite valuable, even in the minimal knowledge he had regained lately he knew it was nearly invaluable in the pursuit of alchemy. With the beast dead, the sith lord took his time, his form shifting back and forth between various faces, some recognizable and some not so much. It seemed a habit when his mind was elsewhere. Easily he harvested a roughly eight foot square of hide from the beast, and with tendon cut from the same corpse wrapped the stinking hide almost like a package and slung it over his shoulder like a backpack.

Absently he reached down, and on the pinky claw, still bigger than his hand, he sliced the digit from the others, removing it and carefully pocketing it and a few of the smaller serrated teeth by excising them with the elegant scalpel. These he also wrapped in small sections of the hide cut from them, humming absently to himself. As the fangs were added to the bundle, he absently pulled a vial from his belt and using a piece of hide as a makeshift glove, extracted a hunk of one of the venom glands of the beast, carefully putting it into the vial.

To all observers he would be utterly focused on the task, though he moved quicker than most normally, knowing the task at hand risked him being separated from the group. There was no desire for that to happen and leave him alone just yet, even though something still called to him in this valley, a persistent whisper from within the cave that drew him further onward into it and to explore it, though he couldn't say why.

The last task was removing a small collective of the terentatek's skulls platings, small ones around the bend in the neck and jaw and eye, each roughly the size of his hand or bigger, stacking them together and binding them to the collective bundle of teeth and wedging them into the collection of hide, and then turning to swiftly follow the Sith Lord into the cave, his form fluidly shifting to resemble an odd amalgam of several famous Sith and Jedi, a form he considered his 'natural' form.

 

[Zambrano the Starweird]

Group A: [member="Darth Venefica"], @Zambrano the Hutt, [member="Elensa Jari"], [member="Ostanes"]
Location: Korriban - Outskirts of the Valley of the Dark Lords - Cave

The Hutt had calmly sat back and watched. Unperturbed by the prospect of a Terentatek in their mists. Not for any confidence in ability to destroy the creature, or from any assurance that the Master of the group would finish it, but simply because he could not be bothered by such mortal fears. Especially not here. Not on Korriban, which had been his play thing many decades prior. Sitting upon his floating Throne however, the Hutt smiled, giggled even at the pain he witnessed in the creature. It seemed that this was not a very talkative group, considering the Hutt had been silent until now, and only the male human of the group speaking beyond the warnings of their Master. Though, he ended this silent stint,

"What fun! Good friend!" Even before a fellow Acolyte ended the life of the creature, the gastropod attempted to approach the thing while in its death throes. Not to inflict further pain (though that was a possibility), and certainly not to end its mortal existence, but merely to pat it. He continued to approach it even as it was finished off, completing the action he had intended to do. Amused eyes then turned in the direction of the present Darth, and opted to follow her, for more observations.

There was little else that could be told of what the Hutt thought or did... his head was merely too empty to be described here...

 

[Darth Timoris]

Location: In the Valley of the Dark Lords
Group: B
Allies: [member="Amaethon"] | [member="Yvette Dusong"] | [member="Vi'kas Mirtis"] | [member="Darth Arcanix"]

Melori wasn’t breaking any rules – if others were too slow to keep up, that was not her look-out. Not that she was about to be foolish or reckless.

She knew what every Sith knew, or at least what they’d been told. There are no secrets in the valley. Not anymore. Everything of value has been taken: stripped away first by Sith seeking to preserve the Order, and later by Jedi seeking to wipe it out. There should be nothing left in the tombs but hollow chambers and mounds of dust.

Pushing these doubts and reservations aside, she redoubled her pace. She checked her pockets and was reassured to find a handful of glow rods. She knew their light would unfortunately act like a beacon in the darkness, signalling her location to anyone – or anything. But with her new lightsaber at her side she was confident she could survive an encounter, but there were things that lurked near the tombs whose attention she would rather not attract.

She passed by the nearest temple and headed straight for the Tomb of Naga Sadow. As she got closer, she could make out intricate designs carved into the archway of the entrance. Something was written across the top in letters she didn't recognize. She guessed that the craftsmanship would have been awe inspiring at one time, but eons of desert winds had worn away most of the detail.

She paused on the threshold, taking in the air of forbidden mystery that surrounded the entrance to the tomb. She sensed no change in the Force, however. Stepping up to the entrance, she was shocked to see that the great stone slab of a door had been split asunder. She ran her fingers along the edges of the fissure. Smooth. Whoever had broken the door had done it long ago.

She stood up straight and marched boldly through the shattered portal. She made her way down the long entrance tunnel, moving slowly through the gloom. Half a dozen metres in, the darkness became absolute, so she pulled out a glow rod and activated it.

An eerie blue light filled the tunnel, sending a small swarm of deadly pelko bugs scurrying for refuge beyond the dim circle of illumination. They had clearly been stalking her, closing in from all sides. She could still sense them there, lurking in the shadows all around her, but she wasn't afraid. Pelko bugs, like many of the creatures indigenous to Korriban, were attuned to the Force. They would have sensed the party’s arrival even before she entered the tomb; her power would inevitably draw them in. Yet it also kept them and their paralysing spines at a safe distance. Instinctively, the pelko bugs could sense their power; and that made them wary of her. They wouldn't come close enough to actually attack her, making them nothing more than a nuisance.

 

[Cedric Dorn]

Group A: [member="Darth Venefica"], [member="Zambrano the Hutt"], [member="Elensa Jari"], [member="Ostanes"]
Location: Korriban – Cave

Cedric hung far back.

His companions were...interesting to say the least. Two humanoids and what appeared to be a Hutt. He didn't quite understand how this amalgam had came to be, but he knew that the One Sith drew all sorts. Quiet Emerald eyes observed them all, watching and taking them in one by one. He had not said a word to any of them, not because he considered himself above them, but rather because he was deciding on what exactly to say.

A year of waiting had taught him patience. A year of holding on to himself and doing nothing had taught him the importance of waiting. Right now, right here, it was no different. Waiting was advantageous, waiting would teach him what he needed to know, not only about these apprentices, but about everything else.

He found the Hutt amusing though.

That was something he likely got from his mother, though he shook his head slightly as the thought went away. Family sentiments would be worth nothing. Slowly Cedric began to follow behind the others, his footsteps dragging through the dirt, his feather coat ruffling slightly as a gust of wind pressed against him.

 

[Lassiter]

Group B
Location: Entering the Valley of the Dark Lords
Allies: [member="Amaethon"] + [member="Yvette Dusong"] + [member="Vi'kas Mirtis"] + [member="Darth Arcanix"] + [member="Melori Raaf"]

She had hung back and remained as quiet as she could while the others made way for the tomb; a trait Sena had picked up over time with her master. Waste no words and listen, speak when spoken to but most importantly do as you’re told. Relay the words of your master and never question it. Truly it had been quite an uncomfortable return to her roots but at the same time she had never felt so alive either. This was who she was and the sooner she had come to realize that the better.

She pushed herself off the stone pillars and out of the shadows as the others made way for the tomb. All of them seemed to have their own motivation to be here and differing skills to handle situations with. Eyes scanned them all and with a quick self-approving nod she followed the others knowing that she was indeed the best looking person on her team. That auburn-haired woman came close but not close enough to cause any truly visible envy to surface. With an indifferent and almost angry look to her she retained a modest proximity to her fellow redhead.

Why was Sena here? To learn and observe. There was that whole thing about lack of ability or skill in the force that should have dissuaded the young woman from going on this ‘adventure’ but at the same time it was a valuable opportunity to not only see what the ‘One Sith’ was like but a chance to get to know them. They had after become her brothers and sisters in a sense. To make herself as much of a stranger as she had over the last few months wouldn’t do her any good in the long run.

Still, had she known Korriban to be a dry and arid wasteland such as this she probably would have stayed at home. After all, there was nothing wrong with being somewhere more... 'Temperate'.

 

[Darth Timoris]

Location: In the tomb of Marka Ragnos
Group: B
Allies: [member="Amaethon"] | [member="Yvette Dusong"] | [member="Vi'kas Mirtis"] | [member="Darth Arcanix"] | [member="Sena Lassiter"]

Melori wasn’t oblivious to any potentially larger predators, like the tu’kata but she was initially concerned with any traps the builders of the tomb might have left behind. Sith architects were notorious for their fiendishly lethal challenges that passed for a measure of the seeker’s worthiness. So she reached out with the Force, carefully probing the area around her for anything out of the ordinary. She received feedback in equal measures of joy and despair. There was nothing to alarm her, which meant that there was nothing to discover that countless Sith and Jedi might have missed.

She continued down the tunnel, winding her way past chambers where once there would have been wealth and treasures buried with the deceased Dark Lord as well as his still-living servants. Sure there might have been things to find if she went looking but she was no tomb-raider, so she progressed until she reached the burial chamber itself. Anything worth having would have been left here.

The pelko bugs matched her pace, endlessly circling just outside the blue illumination cast by her glow rod. Their high-pitched clicking-skreek skreek skreek was relentless - no doubt the sound of frustration as they were powerless to attack her but were by the same token drawn to her.

The burial chamber was easily identifiable by the space once devoted to an enormous stone sarcophagus in the centre of the room, where it would have sat atop a small stone pedestal. Once upon a time a seeker such as her would have gazed upon the remains of the Sith Lord but today there was just an empty space - yet it still filled her with a sense of awe.

She walked up to the platform and stepped on it. Nothing happened, there was no change in the Force, no ghost presented itself to her, so she stepped down from the platform, frustrated but still not willing to give up. Yet the evidence was apparent - there was nothing: the tomb had been robbed and defiled so many times there was no chance of finding anything.

She wasn’t sure what he expected to find, but it wasn't this. The spirits of the ancient Dark Lords were beings of pure dark side energy; they were as eternal as the Force itself. The spirit would linger for centuries-millennia, even-until a worthy successor came along. Or so the texts in the archive had led her to believe.

Yet the harsh evidence was undeniable. Either the ancient manuscripts had failed her or she was not worthy and her ego refused to accept the latter option. So she called the Dark-side to her, her baby blue eyes slowly morphing yellow as the edges of her irises turned first red and then crimson.

She whispered as she scanned the area, “I am here and I am ready. Show yourself. Show me the way to avenge the sacrilege of countless Jedi in defiling this Valley. Let me strike the GrandMaster down - show me the way…”

Her words echoed around the walls, sounding hollow and slightly desperate. Her head dropped and as silence filled the room, it was replaced by the renewed shrill clicking of the pelko bugs.

 

[Taeli Raaf]

Location: Tomb of Marka Ragnos
Group B
Allies: [member="Amaethon"] [member="Melori Raaf"] [member="Sena Lassiter"] [member="Yvette Dusong"] [member="Vi'kas Mirtis"]

Taeli had followed slowly behind her sister, wanting to see what exactly Melori might do while in this tomb. The pelko bugs gave her a wide berth, but still chittered around her because of her powerful aura in the dark side. The others would be exploring this tomb of the next one down, but she had decided to keep an eye on her sister. Even then, she had deployed advanced geo-mapping drones to scout the tomb for hidden areas that could be missed, she had been on too many digs with her adopted father to know that every part of such an old tomb had been discovered.

Hearing her call for the spirit of the ancient Sith Lord to reveal himself, Taeli sighed. She knew that Korriban was not as it once was, too many different iterations of Sith and Jedi had ransacked the world and the ancient Sith had left it . . . unless one knew how to call upon them or attract their attention from the other side.

"They won't come if you call for them like that, Melori," she said, emerging from the shadows to walk slowly up to her sister and towards the sarcophagus that contained the dust of the long dead Sith. "These tombs once held the ancient Sith spirits, but they eventually faded away from the connections they held to these places because of the wanton looting done to them. That's not to say it is impossible to not contact them . . . you just need to know the proper rituals of the dark side to do so. Palpatine and Krayt both knew how to call the spirits to them for guidance and teaching."

Placing a hand on the lid of the ancient container, she said, "It's no failing of yours that they can't hear us currently."

 

[Darth Timoris]

Location: In the tomb of Marka Ragnos
Group: B
Allies: [member="Amaethon"] | [member="Yvette Dusong"] | [member="Vi'kas Mirtis"] | [member="Darth Arcanix"] | [member="Sena Lassiter"]

Melori glowered at the ground. She wanted to do it to her Master but a combination of respect and self-preservation cautioned her actions. She felt foolish and the last person she wanted to see her like this was her sister. Already the duality was becoming challenging for her. But the alternative didn't bear thinking about. She'd learned so much so quickly and had no doubt that was due to the effort her Master was putting in - but any failures or set-backs had double the impact at present. She felt a disappointment to two individuals, even if they were the same person. So she resolved to avoid making mistakes in a way only an arrogant person could.

So she calmed herself and finally spoke. "Do you know how to call them, Master?" Her voice was louder now, her tone inquisitive and full of hope. "And more importantly, can you show me?"

 

[Taeli Raaf]

Location: Tomb of Marka Ragnos
Group B
Allies: [member="Melori Raaf"] [member="Yvette Dusong"] [member="Amaethon"] [member="Sena Lassiter"] [member="Vi'kas Mirtis"]

"As a matter of fact, I do know one ritual," Taeli said, smiling at Melori. "We're going to need a blood sacrifice though, and I'll probably end up depleting my concentration amulet, but we should be able to make contact with Marka Ragnos for a brief time. Let me show you."

Going over to rummage through some bowls and pots, she finally located a shallow basin and picked it up to bring over to set on the ground between her and Melori. Reaching into her satchel, she pulled out a small knife and slid it across her hand. Blood flowed from the cut, and making her hand into a fist, she slowly filled the bowl with her blood before wiping the blade off and handing it to her sister.

"Stand back," she said, leveling her injured hand at the bowl and unleashing a torrent of dark side energy and lightning into it. Chanting in the ancient Sith language as she poured more and more power into the blood, she made a gesture with her free hand for Melori to open the sarcophagus as she would need to pour this concoction on the dust of the ancient Sith Lord then feed it more power.

 

[Via Dolorosa]

Group A​

[member="Ostanes"]​

[member="Elensa Jari"]​

[member="Zambrano the Hutt"]​

[member="Cedric Dorn"]​

​

Location​

Surface of Korriban...Outskirts of The Valley of the Dark Lords...Cave​

She marched through the cave's tunnel system fighting the growing anticipation of what they may discover. She would not be picky but there were a few items she hoped to uncover here. Tomes being at the top of the list. She cherished knowledge over materialistic items like weapons and armours. Also, she had no need for trinkets, jewelry, or trophies. However, if that was all to be found here, then so be it. But most of all, she hoped to not only see but speak with a Sith ghost, to learn their secrets and unlock their mysteries.

After several twists and turns walking in the tunnel, they finally came to a grand opening littered with the bones of tuk'ata. The poor pups must have been nothing more than nourishment for the beast. She barely even glanced at them as she passed by, her eyes fixed on several alters that lined the back walls of the cavern. A few chests, showing no signs of molestation, sat in corners to the east of the cavern while a cracked and eroded statue leaned to the right, the ruined head propped up against the wall.

With her right hand she brushed away sand and webs from off the face of the statue, staring into it's sunken eyes as she brought up her memories of who this could have been. No name could be placed to the face so she left the statue alone and began looking over the alter. Dust and small sand spiders covered the various objects that had been placed here centuries ago. Nothing attracted her attention. Then she moved to the chests feeling as though one in particular was calling to her, and kicked the weakened lock off.

Her eyes lit up and a small smile crept upon her face when realization set in as to what she discovered.

 

[Darth Timoris]

Location: In the tomb of Marka Ragnos
Group: B
Allies: [member="Amaethon"] | [member="Yvette Dusong"] | [member="Vi'kas Mirtis"] | [member="Darth Arcanix"] | [member="Sena Lassiter"]

Melori’s mood picked up the moment her sister suggested a solution. In part because it suggested she was not the one at fault for an inability to contact the dead Sith Lord and the remainder was because you never knew what might become of such an encounter.

Melori took the blade and was initially expecting to have to add blood to the bowl but realised it was to prise open the sarcophagus. So at the moment she was commanded, Melori attempted to slide the blade in the gap between the two stone sections of the coffin but initially struggled. Panicking slightly, she almost dropped the knife before calming herself and finally found a gap large enough. Wiggling the blade, she put her shoulder to the lid and moved it, very slowly.

Finally there was enough room for her Master to pour the combination of Sith magic and blood in and so she stepped back to allow Darth Arcanix room to do whatever she needed to do.

As she did, she glanced around to see if any of the other Acolytes had joined them…

 

[Taeli Raaf]

Location: Tomb of Marka Ragnos
Group B
Allies: [member="Melori Raaf"] [member="Sena Lassiter"] [member="Amaethon"] [member="Yvette Dusong"] [member="Vi'kas Mirtis"]

Still chanting, she carefully made her way over to the sarcophagus, channeling even more dark side energies into the bowl. It was nice that the world offered such power, being a nexus of dark side energy for so long, as she could just funnel some of the power of the planet into the ritual. She would prefer the amulet approach, but Exar Kun and Ulic Qel-Droma's Sith talismans had been lost or hidden away by the Jedi she suspected.

Carefully, oh so carefully, pouring the liquid down into the gap her sister opened, her eyes flashed bright yellow as she placed her concentration amulet on the lid and chanted even louder, pouring more of the dark side into the dust and liquid. Her concentration amulet started to shake, its energies seeping down.

"Expergiscere, o maxima veterum Tenebrosi dominis! Sapientiam et scientiam, ut una nobiscum com melius! Excita, Marka Ragnos, qui eduxit de com ad a, aureum saeculum potentiae!"

She had no idea if any of the others in their group knew what was going on or if they had followed them into this tomb, but a chill wind started to fill the chamber. A moaning sound echoed off the chamber as the ritual took affect.

"Who summons me. . ." a voice said, soft at first, but slowly the dust from below began to glow slightly and whisps of darkness slowly rose up from her amulet.

 

[Elensa Jari]

Location: Korriban Surface - Cave, outside the Valley of the Sith Lords
Team: [member="Darth Venefica"] | [member="Zambrano the Hutt"] | [member="Ostanes"] | [member="Cedric Dorn"]

Moving deeper into the cavernous network was a chilling experience for those who had little experience of it. Within such caves dwelled the unknown, that ever-present sense that something had yet to be discovered or explored, the true horror of it being not that it might be dangerous, but rather that nobody could know whether danger was present or not. Even when we assume otherwise, we cannot know for certain. It was something the mind tried to comprehend and ultimately failed to understand, simply because there was a lack of any coherent evidence around which it could formulate a hypothesis. We are, ultimately, subject to that most primal of all fears: that the unknown offers no solace.

All this should could feel now, pressing upon her mind, that nameless fear slowly creeping across all of her senses. Adrenaline flowed freely through her veins, leaving her on edge and at risk of panic, simply because she had no way now of anticipating what might happen next. And this place...there was something fundamentally wrong with it all. This isn't my fear, the way I feel fear, she knew. This is something even more potent. It was fear magnified, a primordial contact slowly eating away at what remained of her nerves. Her earlier sorrow had banished it for a time, that well-remembered feeling giving her an odd sense of security, even though it clenched at her heart like a vice, but that was slowly eroding away, too, leaving the Hapan with that natural sense of trepidation.

She had felt fine for a little while, but as they had moved further away from the humid heat of the outdoors and into the fetid air of the caves, she had undergone another change which had startled her: blindness, as darkness descended upon her eyes. That the others might be able to navigate it was something she hadn't considered before they arrived - in truth, she had thought they might have glowrods with them. It only now occurred to her that she should have brought the same, but that had clearly escaped her during their earlier preparations. Within darkness, she was blind, unable to see even the slightest of movements, another sense torn from her, though she knew it to be temporary.

Reaching around her blindly, Elensa found something solid - not the wall of the cave, but the slightly elevated platform used by the Hutt to cart himself around. She could hear the soft hum of the repulsorlifts that kept it elevated in mid-air, levitating simply by virtue of using the planet's own solid mass to push it away, the way two magnets did when their opposing poles were pushed together. She could feel the slight vibration against the toes of her boots, and knew should could navigate this way: grasping onto the side of the throne, she held it tightly, pale fingers curling around it for dear life, knowing she might be able to follow the others this way, provided the Hutt didn't do something stupid and get them lost.

Something cracked beneath her feet as she walked tentatively beside the throne chair, and this disturbed her more than anything: she couldn't see what it was she walked upon, the soft sandy ground beneath their feet clearly having given way to a more solid mass, though clearly fragile if her weight could cause it to disintegrate on contact with her boots. Another gentle surge of fear, her feeling of foreboding coming quicker now, that singular sense of the unknown gnawing at her the way a cold wind gnaws at the bones. We are not walking where mortals are meant to tread, she thought. Has this Sith led us to our deaths, then? What form will such take?

Now she wished she had the answers. I'll add them to my list, along with my voice and my vision. Give her those, and all would be well. Alas, life was never so simple.

 

[Grrwunhoooll Agaburry]

Location: Valley of the Dark Lords, Heading to the outer caves.
Objective: Personal
Team: Me, myself & I

Korriban! The beginning to it all the pain and agony. Kezeroth's Gunship hovered low to the planet a distance in meters from the Valley of the Dark Lords, Form above the large armored Gen'dai could envision the Ones of his past walking around attending Sith politics, training and what not. It brought a odd feeling of pain to remember and stand in his past, he had one through so much. With the back ramp dropping down Kezeroth took a step into the light air and fell from the ship, descending to the Valley of the Dark Lords the large Gen'dai activated his Jet pack 2 meters from the ground to slow his fall. The echo of the powerful streams of fire and energy roared into the caves.

Standing in the middle of the the ancient ruins Kezeroth's face mask folded over his face, He looked like a bounty hunter in his armor or some type of large mercenary. He never looked like a Sith but that was not to lead to mistake. His Force presence was wild, raw and very much of the darkside. It could be felt slightly to those nearby. Eyeing his scanners his Heads up display revealed a small shuttle that had been on the planets surface for quite some time. Scanning the Vessel he smirked as the codes revealed it to be from One Sith. Moving out he focused on his instincts to remember where he was place when he was a brutal monster. It was more of a a memory walk than anything but little did the Gen'dai know his destination was a cave outside the Valley of the Dark Lords... And so he wandered toward a specific distant cave. His spiked metal boots drove into the red dirt with each step and crushed bones of dead animals. It was as times of old.

" It Begins and Ends..."

[member="Darth Venefica"]
@[member="Darth Arcanix"]

 

[Julius Sedaire]

Location:Korriban Surface - Valley of the Dark Lords - Cave Chamber
Team:Darth Venefica | Zambrano the Hutt| Elensa Jari(

Ostanes strode forward as the others went, mulling over what could possibly be left of value in the tombs. There wasn't much he could think of, when he put even his mind to it, so as the passage ways winded and twisted, the once-powerful Alchemist trailed his hand along the walls of the place they were exploring. Something in here was still pulling at him, and the deeper he went, the stronger the pull became, as if it were a lodestone to iron almost. Smiling, the Sith strode into the same chamber as the others, stopping at the statue to study it, shifting his form to resemble it as closely as he could, down to the eyebrows and how they were sculpted.

Watching the Sith Lady, he toyed with his new look as he strode about the rooms, gazing around, and remaining in the back of the pack, resembling nothing so much as a lean jackal on the prowl, waiting for the proper time to leap. There was by little means he could fight almost anyone here and expect much short of utter defeat. His talents lay in knowledge Rave had stripped from him, and he sorely doubted he would be able to get much done in the way of a duel without them and their products.

For now, he settled near the edge of the chamber, waiting. If something came along, he would take his chances. Odds are there were small things. And he could hope for something besides the stinking, if useful hide he carried now slung across his back.

 

[Zambrano the Starweird]

Group A: [member="Darth Venefica"], @Zambrano the Hutt, [member="Elensa Jari"], [member="Ostanes"], [member="Cedric Dorn"]
Location: Korriban - Outskirts of the Valley of the Dark Lords - Cave

The group marched on, and so the Hutt followed. An unnaturally calm and empty mind existed in the space behind the slugs almost luminescent golden eyes. Each exhibiting their feline quality to reflect whatever paltry amount of light existed within the cave. Paltry for the Hapan perhaps, but a creature like Zambrano suffered no such deficiencies. Though he was pleasantly surprised when said Hapan, decided to come over for a visit. Naturally he interpreted this as an extension of friendship... given that he often associated any act as an act of friendship. The Vaapad crawling around on his Throne, nibbling fleshy bits off of the corpses that were left behind on his Throne, that must have absolutely reeked to the high heavens in such close proximity. As the multi-tentacled creature made its way to say hello to its masters new friend, Zambrano decided to strike up a little conversation as the Master of the group got all smiley at a box.

"Care for a sssnack, my friend?" As he reached down to grab something, a fleshy thing fell to the floor, which had been the unidentified thing the mute woman encountered as she latched upon the repulsorlift of his Throne. Then as he spoke, he finally found a nice loose part, flesh ready to fall off the bone practically. It was luke-warm, slightly chilled on the inside, and as he sunk his proverbial claws into the skin, piercing the flesh to feel the sticky molasses gush cover his fingers as it mingled with the slime of his own skin. Quickly, he yanked the fermenting muscle mass out from the rib cage of a corpse nearest to the girl, sending a quick splattering of the nearly black liquid around as stringy bits tried to cling to the bones they were so rudely torn from. His hand thrusted out towards the girls face in offering. Luckily, it wasn't dripping in the stuff, given that it had had enough time to settle... there was no dealing with the waft of stink that undoubtedly passed by her face however.

Other than that... incident, the Hutt continued to follow in the footsteps of the Master within the cave, hardly taking notice to the outlier behind them that took amusement in the Hutt. He would surely be flattered to meet him.