True Belief

[Lamper]

The Temple of Knowledge​

Kaleth, the ancient temple of Knowledge, has been lost to the Jedi for centuries, along with the other nine ancient temples. However, in the year 1,012 ABY, then Jedi Padawan Piper Halodarter and Rorik Grey discovered the essence of a Jedi Master who held knowledge of the temple, as well as its location.

Excavation teams have pilfered the area in the past, but most have not gotten far, for some unknown reason.

Gain Access to the Kaleth Ruins and retrieve a store of holocrons hidden deep within the interior of the temple. 30,000 Year old Tythonian War Droids, in various states of disrepair, yet still very lethal, roam the structure, seeking to protect it from all intruders. Learn the Location of the Ancient Jedi temple of Mahara Kesh, the Jedi Temple of Healing. Survive The Test of Knowledge.

Cappi Tremaine // Khelsea Vong

__The early morning sun warmed the backdrop, twin specters of good and evil buried in bright skylight: moons Ashla and Bogan. Piercing rays cut between the ruin's main prominence, bathing the green grass below its gates. On either side, marking the face of both towers in green symbols lasting centuries, were circular hieroglyphs that resembled those moons; perhaps in fact tellings of time and date, predicting this very moment as two Jedi Knights returned to the place of their peoples' ancestors.

They rode up near the massive overgrown ruin on a single speeder bike, an early morning joke somehow leading to Cappi cuddling Khelsea's waist. Despite their being the same rank now, Khelsea still 'outdated' him; the very word earlier used raising her hairs and costing him the driver's seat. It was good seeing Khelsea again after all this time, a class together spawning this idea to volunteer for the mission.

Yet Cappi's mind wandered elsewhere while he held on to her hips, questioning what it was he knew; of the Jedi, virtue, himself. Everything seemed so relative to him now, requiring greater reflection of the past and consideration in each present moment. His life's city of knowledge was no longer justified in its foundation, entirely turned on its axis revealing a different shade of gray cast over the lot. Now its shadows were simply doors and its openly lit squares blocked by looming structures, depending on one's perspective.

But there was one thing that was clear: the Jedi were his family.

As they slowed to appraise the first signs of the ruin, Cappi pulled loose his hood and tossed it back over his shoulders; light gray sweatshirt settled over black light-weight M1-7 ATARIS armor and brigandine vest. He still disliked the skin tight regions of the jumpsuit, and went helmet-less. As much freedom as he could afford. He looked over Khelsea's shoulder into the sun, squinting a more stoic stare than that of his younger self. And he breathed in the fresh morning air, marveling at the structure's integrity and foreign design.

"It's amazing. After all these years. Still standing. What d'you think it means?" he gestured to the huge green circles upon the structures' faces.

@Veloster Turbo

 

[Veloster Turbo]

Having 'won' her right to pilot the speeder bike, Khelsea sped through the lush forests of Tython at breakneck speeds, pushing the speeder to its limits and zipping past trees and dodging impassible barriers with her loose hair blowing past her face and flapping in the wind like a waving flag. She wasn't sure if Cappi was as enthusiastic about speeders and starfighters as she was, but speed was addicting and she had always loved the feeling of moving as quickly as her vehicle would let her. Besides, the forests of Tython harbored many dangerous inhabitants, and it was best to move quickly in order to get to their destination unmolested.

Arriving at the temple in what might have been considered record time, Khelsea cut the throttle and let the speeder slow down a bit before pulling to a complete stop just on the outskirts of the Temple of Knowledge. As she hopped off the bike, she mentally checked to make sure she had everything she needed. She was wearing tight fitting thermal clothing, with her modular ESA Ascendant A-AM Armor overtop. Similar to Cappi, she chose to wear the lightweight version, choosing to leave the heavier and bulkier parts on the ship. Finally, satisfied that all her accessories were hooked onto her belt, Khelsea stretched and observed the temple. It was fascinating, how large and ancient it was. At the same time, she expected something of the sort, based on her experience with the ancient Jedi temple she had discovered on the moon of Galtea with Master Lutomi and then padawan Kai. She was also sure that the temple would have some sort of defense system, or it wouldn't have been intact for such a long time. Perhaps those excavation teams got only so far because they hadn't managed to solve the secrets of the temple, or perhaps the defenses were too strong.

Just as these thoughts were running through her head, her partner for the mission spoke. "Yeah, it's even larger than the other temple I've seen. I'm not sure what those circles mean, but I'm sure they're significant. Perhaps we'll figure it out once we get inside. Do any of those entrances feel right to you?" Having been staring at the temple for a few minutes now, Khelsea noticed several spots which could potentially be entrances. There was an eroding set of stairs which led upwards towards the backside of one of the great towers with the large green circles, and around the base of the temple there were several spots which potentially looked like former access points to the temple. There were also cracks, which may lead to the interior if they managed to squeak through, but in all likelihood those cracks had already been explored and if they did lead inside, the areas they led to would have been plundered already.

@Lamper

 

[Lamper]

He stood behind her, breathing in the fresh air and turning his head towards sounds of distant animals until she asked about entrances. He walked passed her, hip-checking her hip out of his way playfully, and took a closer look at the cracks. They were his first instinctual answer. But the more he looked at them, the more he realized their ambiguity and likely draw to other scavengers who'd long come and gone.

"Well," he sighed placing his hands to his hips. He looked down and saw some tracks.

"Hm," he pouted.

Cappi knelt down and refrained from touching them despite his hovering hand, following their strange shapes toward the ruin but disappearing into upheaval and other scuff marks before showing any real clear direction. He resigned to rest his forearm on one knelt knee and he looked at all his options. He sensed through the gaps ahead, but didn't see much beyond the residual essence of the Temple itself. Some disconcerting flickers of, or rather holes in the larger picture that drew his attention. But nothing overall.

His head swiveled towards one of the eroded, lower areas that could have once been front access points. And he stood back up.

"Intruders use cracks. Unwanted guests use the back door. We belong here. Let's use the front."

He looked back over his shoulder with a glimmer in his eye to Khelsea and a curl to his lip. It may not be their home in particular. But it was the Jedi's Temple, their temple. He wanted to enter it as such.

But those tracks were foreboding. They could have been anyone's, grave-robbers or some animal's. But they weren't any human's, that much was sure. And those strange gaps in the Force Cappi felt scattered inside the structure. It was as though there were things there that didn't want to be seen by a trained eye.

Two former statues of lustrous, robed Jedi stood broken and worn beside the entrance; each holding stone tablets in one arm and a scepter in the other. One stood without an arm, the tablet in hand lying on the ground. The other had broken in half, torso on its back with a dramatic diagonal sheer of its chiseled robes. It looked pitiful there, having suffered some vandalization of color and scribbling over half its face.

Inside, darkness wouldn't obstruct their curiosity for long as this Temple in particular utilize light more than others. Something about the theme of knowledge and the light it represented reflected in its architecture through mirrors and shafts of carefully guided streams of light, dust particles floating through the air as these two disturbed ancient territory. Instead of finding torches or some kind of burning system of illumination, there were built in ornaments that, if angled just right, could pick up specifically designed light sources and shine through the Temple halls even underground here. And there path led them down, underground; which seemed strange as tall as the structure was front he outside. But it seemed the path ahead of them would first lead them down before taking them back up.

"So what've you been up to all this time? I'm sure you've heard all about my epic fail. You seen Kheera since... that mountain?"

He made idle chatter in the mean time, referencing his latest failure with disdain. Then when he tried to remember the name of the mountain they had that class on so long ago, his memory seized up. Thanks to his head injury, scar clear across his left temple, he still felt little spasms when trying to access memories. He worried he'd suffer this way for the rest of his life, maybe even forget a lot of things for good. But fate it seemed did not deem the worst memories to be equally plagued as he frequently and painfully relived those moments. It was the lighter times, gentler times, he tried to recapture.

 

[Veloster Turbo]

Khelsea wandered and examined the different openings of the temple from a distance while Cappi did his thing. Just as she walked back towards him, he stood back up as if he had made a decision. After listening to him, she agreed with him, knowing she had no better alternative. "The front door seems right, but it'll probably have it's own defenses, just like the rest of the temple. I don't mean to be a downer, but I wonder why there's so many stories of people coming back empty-handed from attempting to loot this temple." She examined the path as they headed towards the main entrance, noting that it was unorthodox to send visitors on a downwards journey before challenging them with a significant increase in elevation. There was probably a good reason for the temple to have been designed this way though, so Khelsea continued walking with Cappi in silence for a while, making sure to keep an eye on her surroundings.

"Hmm.. I haven't really done anything significant. Just spent time getting and giving training when I can, and a few short and uneventful missions. I've seen Kheera around but I haven't had the chance to say anything. She seems fairly occupied. What about you? What is this epic story I haven't heard about yet?" It felt weird to tell someone older than herself by a few years that they've grown up, so Khelsea kept the comment to herself. However, she did make a mental note about the fact. She wasn't sure what happened to Cappi, but despite him retaining his wittiness, Khelsea could see that he had matured a bit since the first and last time they had spent time together. What didn't surprise her was that he was sharp in his observations, and his judgement was much more rational than previously shown.

They continued to walk down the path, which led underground. It was somewhat foreboding, but with Cappi's company and her guard up it helped sooth the uneasy feeling. Turning the corner, light returned to her eyes and blinded her momentarily. She felt as if she saw something move in the shadows of the temple ahead of her, but because of the light, she was unsure if it was just an illusion or a shadow, or perhaps even her own imagination.

 

[Lamper]

He shrugged off her initial comments of caution, thinking nothing of them. As much as he had changed, he still lacked that connection between what he knew and what was right in front of him. He knew the Temple had rejected scavengers for years, otherwise this venture would be pointless. And yet there wasn't any immediate threat in front of him, so he denied the premise of danger and walked brazenly down the corridor.

"You haven't heard about it?" He reconsidered sharing the worst series of memories in his recent history or even his entire life, harder to tell the whole story to someone who didn't know than to touch on vague notions of events with someone who'd already been broken to the news. "Well what can I say? When it comes to getting people killed, I guess I'm TOPS."

He skipped ahead and kicked a stone down the hall, syncing his sweep with last word as the stone then rattled down the walls and rolled over cracked foundations. His head fell as he stood still in sadness after that little outburst. He didn't give into despair like he had for a time. Nor did he allow the anger to overwhelm him like it did until facing himself. But he couldn't help but feel a loss whenever he talked about it.

"Y'know I used to think it wasn't worth getting involved. Everything was just a jumble of slime and trash, take your pick. All I had was the thought that I was welcome there, in the gutter. Now I can't help but want to clean it all up somehow, even if I know it won't last after I'm gone. I just want others to know a better life. But from the moment I decided to try, it's like the Force itself has branded me its enemy."

Suddenly distant sounds echoed out from deep within the ruin like dozens of ghosts calling out for vengeance, as though the vengeful Force itself had heard Cappi's blasphemous misjudgment and grew full of wrath in the heart of the Temple. Cappi looked back at Khelsea, unsure of what those sounds even sounded like. But then they stopped.

There was a light reflected over her eyes. But now that he looked in her direction, he noticed something odd behind her back where they'd come from as the entrance started closing. Or rather the ceiling lowered down over this false entrance as the proper flooring for the true entrance above, a trap door.

"Oh no. Khelsea. I don't think this was the front door."

Behind him, before her down the hallway deeper into the corridor, slabs of stone in the walls spat out dusty breaths as they popped open partially one after the other. Nothing emerged from them yet, but their alternating spacial depths opened just far enough to block view of what lay behind.

Cappi gasped to their reveal.

Perhaps he'd kicked the rock over some trigger or perhaps their fate was decided the very moment they chose to come here. Either way, something had exposed itself to them. Inside the first opened panel would be a skeleton sprawled against the corner of a shallow yet dark compartment, the back wall a spiked trap that had been long sprung and not reset. Little critters would scramble from the exposure. Some doors were compartments like this. Others led into different rooms. All of them were traps in their own forms, some specifically more dangerous as they lead the way deeper into the Temple.

Then, something made its way closer. Water? A green mist sprayed from little holes in the ceiling from far away, coming closer and closer as they activated in succession. A poisonous liquid: not enough to kill or age the stone walls but enough to burn bare skin and work its way into the sentient system for lethal effect. And with the entrance barred, the only way out was forward.

 

[Veloster Turbo]

Cappi's outburst was surprising, but something significant must have happened or he wouldn't be speaking the way he did. She was thinking that perhaps they should talk about it, but that was when she caught a glimpse of movement. Everything took a turn for the worse when they realized that they weren't at the real entrance, and without warning, they were trapped.

It wasn't the way she had envisioned it, but at least they were inside the temple. If she were to be honest with herself, it wasn't the best feeling. However, adrenaline took over and there was no point in stressing over something that had already happened. "The only way is forward then. Breathing mask on. Let's go." Khelsea took the lead for the time being, checking her corners and using the Force to help anticipate danger. Deeper and deeper they went, avoiding obstacles and passing by dead bodies until all was quiet. The corridor led downwards, into the dark. Was it another trap?

 

[Lamper]

"Breathing mask?!?"

Cappi cocked his head back with surprise, patting and searching his neck and belt as he realized he'd left the stupid thing back on the ship. He always hated the extra baggage and gadgets, feeling weighed down and claustrophobic. Seeing the mist come closer in the dark like a ghostly current swooping down sent chills up his spine, and he knew he had to follow Khelsea fast as she brushed passed him.

Cursing to himself and lightly coughing, he shuffled into a hurried jaunt; the best they could do with all these half opened doors in the way. Each time Khelsea slid-pivot around a slab of stone to check her corners, Cappi couldn't help but repeat the process as though there was no telling what might emerge from the shadows. The suggestive paranormal always got Cappi on edge, ever since he was a child. He was almost frantic as his shoulders bumped against edges and his palms impatiently pushed passed obstacles until their path went even lower, the floor becoming slick and slanted and forcing them to slide a bit. And once they were deep enough into this new tunnel, which didn't take much with the overhanging ceiling, the mist could no longer reach them.

"Ah... Well, that's one way to be welcomed home. I think we're good. For now. I can't see a thing. You okay?"

As Khelsea led the way, she'd be the first to walk through a giant, thinly strung and almost unseen, spider web. Dozens of frantic little baby spiders would fall onto her hair and shoulders from their disturbed nesting and crawl all over her.

An unforeseen distraction.

Whether she stepped further in and triggered the corner stone that way or she backed up and triggered the other side with Cappi's joint weight, the floor cracked with another trap as suddenly the flooring around the single plate they were on crumbled away into a pitfall with spikes lining the bottom. The two of them would be awkwardly balanced onto a single focal seesaw contraption that, if too much weight was on one side, could tip and topple into a fatal drop. A normal person couldn't make the jump to safety. A normal person couldn't even react quick enough to attempt the jump. And once the plate was stabilized, a jump would be difficult for anyone.

@Veloster Turbo

 

[Veloster Turbo]

As if the gas and the traps weren't bad enough, the arachnids came out of nowhere and hit Khelsea full in the face. The result was catastrophic, as like many other humans who had grown up in a developed urban setting, she was quite afraid of these creatures. She jumped and swatted around her face wildly, messing up her hair and brushing off everything she could get her hands on. It was a good thing her armor was tight fitting, or it would be bother her even more if they had gotten under her clothes. And if that wasn't enough, she managed to trigger a trap while vigorously moving. Things were not looking good.

Khelsea looked down, and saw a drop that would be fatal to non-Force users. For her, it was still a daunting task to land unscathed. Best case scenario, the both of them end up somewhere safe, and not at the bottom of the drop. All this analysis took less than a second, and she made her decision. She wasn't sure if Cappi was thinking the same thing, but they needed to jump together. Using the Force, she made the leap, and at the same time, dragged Cappi with her. If he jumped as well, then he'd probably overshoot the landing a bit. But if he didn't... at least he'd get on firm ground safely. She couldn't guarantee his landing would be soft, since it was more like throwing a large object through telekinesis.

Seconds after they made the jump, a large boulder hurtled out of the dark ceiling, covering the pit entirely. A second later they would be squashed like bugs under a boot, or if they had fallen down, they wouldn't be getting back up. In fact, the boulder was so large that it blocked the way back out. "Well, I guess we can only head forward. And I doubt anyone's been this far inside, or the boulder would be blocking us already... I wonder what lies ahead?" Khelsea was genuinely intrigued at the prospect of making it inside the temple. They were definitely a long was from safety, but at the same time they had gotten to a point where nobody else had been. The adrenaline rush had pushed the thoughts of the spiders all but out of her mind.

@Lamper