Ask Secret Worlds

[Hera "The Joyful" Albion]

Hera laughed in response to Zathria's comments, if that was all that had occurred then this mission would be incredibly straightforward. Not that straightforward was bad in any way, Hera liked straightforward! But it seemed to the Jedi Master that her missions had unfortunately ended up either complex or ended in something losing its life. But as quickly as they started talking, they finished their drinks and moved on to acquiring transportation.

Rather than hunting for a rental herself, she listened to how Ezra talked and took note of the speeders he looked at and the speeders he passed over. After the young man chose his vehicles, Hera picked two speeders that seemed to not pass Ezra's standards of cleanliness but were otherwise fine. Offering one to Dash, she onboarded her speeder and floored it after the other master-apprentice pair.

After a while of riding and nearing their destination, the fog began to roll in. Slowing down her speeder as they entered, Hera noticed the fog almost immediately enveloping the four Jedi. "All stop! We walk from here." Hera announced, pulling back her speeder. The last thing they needed was to lose each other in the fog while driving high-speed vehicles. Stepping off, she removed her blackened goggles and let her infrared vision drift over the fog. However, she replaced the goggles soon after discovering they didn't help her see any better.

The Force would be the only thing that allowed consistent sight in here. The fog had become so thick, so fast, it was definitively unnatural. Thankfully she could see a few feet in front of her and this would allow Hera to find her companions fairly easily. Looking at Zathria, Hera would remark, "I am uneasy, the fog meddles with my senses as much as my sight. Does it affect you as well?" As she spoke, unbeknownst to the four Jedi, something stalked in the undergrowth.

They were being hunted.

@Sreeya @Alhon @Phoenix

 

[Zathria]

Well, then we should spar, he said, as if it was the most natural next step.

Zathria wasn't going to argue with his selection of vehicle and just kind of shrugged. She didn't look too thrilled about the helmet, but she put it on anyway. I've seen my share of donorcycle accidents, so helmets are important, she said. She'd seen people before who absolutely would have died if it weren't for their helmet.

She climbed onto the back of the speeder and they started zooming off, racing across the plains at incredible speed. She found herself tensing involuntarily at the speed with which he pressed their bike onward, mentally reminding herself that he had done this many, many times.

He's a podracer, he knows what he's doing, she thought to herself. Even in her slightly anxious state, though, she couldn't miss the way the fog seemed to envelope them. She was about to tell him to slow down, but he seemed to do that on his own, which was good.

Suddenly, Zathria's neck began to crawl. It was far from natural, and Hera's words only confirmed that.

Same! she shouted across the gap of the speeder.

Out of the corner of her eye, she caught sight of something. Her head whipped around and her lightsaber leapt to her hand, but by the time she actually saw what was over there, it was gone.

I saw something, she said, her grip on her lightsaber tightening. Two legged, hunched over, and... deformed looking. And quick, she said. Had it all been in her head? She wished she could say she were sure that it was in her head, but she couldn't.

@Black Noise @Sreeya @Alhon

 

[Dash Pavan]

Too late, Dash realised he should have got involved. While he had left it to the senior Jedi to settle on some transport, he should have banked on Ezra sticking his perfect nose in. His boyfriend soon had them on rickety speeder bikes instead, no doubt because he liked them better. Zathria and Hera seemed to go with the idea without comment and Dash found it both impressive and nauseating how easily Ez could wrap others around his finger.

Fixing a dusty helmet that was too big for his little head, Dash reluctantly fired the thing up and set off out the yard, taking a few moments to work out the handling before he was comfortable picking up speed.

Ezra was unquestionably better at this, but Dash had ridden passenger enough times to grasp the basics and he could already feel the Force at his shoulder, guiding his movements. Little things like that were starting to happen automatically now, instinctively, whereas he always had to concentrate before. Hera said it was because he was starting to mature as a Jedi.

They sped and weaved for a while, Ezra motoring out in front with Zathria on the back, followed by Hera and Dash bringing up the rear. As they neared the unearthed temple, they began to run into mist and then an increasingly dense fog. Dash was the last to enter the haze and he could have swore he saw movement in its depths.

Hera had them off their bikes and walking soon enough. While Dash was glad to be back on solid ground he felt more on edge standing still. The fog was thick and billowing and it was very difficult to keep any sense of direction. Hera said she was struggling and Zathria even claimed to have seen something alive. "Where?!" Dash asked, glancing worriedly at Ezra and into the murkiness all around.

He turned to look behind him, just in time to duck as something long and barbed swiped right where his head had been. "Guys, look out!".

He jumped back, instinctively drawing his saber as a large Gharzr leapt into their midst, twisted and deformed by some strange energies. Its twin stinging tails had only just missed him and its long snout snapped from one Jedi to the other, sharp teeth bared with malice.

@Sreeya @Black Noise @Phoenix

 

[Ezra Thorne]

Ezra stared blankly at Zathria drawing her saber to her hand. It was a painful reminder that she gave him a glorified electric razor to fight with. He didn’t bother drawing the electrosword, listening to Zathria’s unsavory description of someone or something deformed out there, “Probably just Dimetri out camping,” He suggested, having no love for the padawan that was Dash’s roommate.

His ears tipped him off a bit earlier than the others, and he coiled the Force around Dash to yank him back. It gave the blond enough distance to avoid any other immediate strikes. Ezra was used to things going sideways on missions, and he had faith in the others. Instead, he took out his NalPhone and pointed it at the beast as it prepared to pounce at Hera.

“Spalexa, what am I looking at?”

Scanning……Ghazr..carnivore..predator… twin stinging tails…

“Ah okay, avoid the tails, guys, they sting,” Ezra narrated helpfully, keeping a respectable distance as he stood on a nearby rock.


How helpful is Ezra? rolled 4/20

@Black Noise @Alhon @Phoenix

 

[Hera "The Joyful" Albion]

Hera saw the beast as it leaped out at the Jedi, too slow to react to yank back Dash. Thankfully, Ezra picked up where she fell short, pulling the young man from danger's reach. It was frantic and panicked in its movements as if it had not been hunting the Jedi. Unfortunately, the Jedi Master had little time to ponder this as it leaped straight at her. Quickly drawing her lightsaber, Hera swung at it as it came for her.

"Son of a Sithspawned whore!" Hera shouted as the Gharzr slammed into her body, raking its claws across her armor and finding purchase in the open areas between plates. Despite the blade bisecting its body, the beast was able to lash out in death throws and cut through Hera's armorweave undersuit as if it wasn't even there. As the lifeless body of the beast fell to the wayside, Hera cursed again, "What's the point of wearing armor all the damn time if it doesn't keep me from danger!?"

She wasn't asking anyone in particular, but the venting of her anger kept the pain from bothering her too much. The claws had dug deep, but not too deep as to make the slashes too worrisome. They bled a little as Hera put away her blade and started applying bandages, more than anything they just hurt. As she sprayed a little bacta into the wounds, Hera glanced over to Zathria and remarked, "I don't think that thing was the real danger, there's something out there. Something closer to the tomb."

As if on que, a great roar could be heard off in the distance. Hera gritted her teeth and made a face listening to it, it sounded like a rancor, but the energies of the dark side that crept around the fog made her worried it was something worse.

@Phoenix @Sreeya @Alhon

 

[Zathria]

Everything degenerated down into a disaster within an instant. Dash's head was nearly taken off, Hera was clawed by the attacking creature, and Ezra was snapchatting.

The whole fight was over in just a few moments, and Zathria moved over to take a look at Hera's wounds only to have a bone-chilling roar tear through the fog. She froze in place, turning in the direction of the sound, her eyes sweeping over the fog only to see... absolutely nothing. It was fog.

There was no question that she sensed darkness, though.

Darkness and then there was the sound of a child screaming. Off in the fog, the others would hear it as well, but it was... wrong, right? There shouldn't be any young girls out here. Not in this kind of fog, but still Zathria had an instinct to go toward it. An instinct she knew was unwise, but it was almost magnetic.

@Alhon @Sreeya @Black Noise

 

[Dash Pavan]

Dash had hoped the Ghazr was the worst of it. After the initial shock at nearly getting skewered by the tail, he had watched the group make short work of the creature, Hera dicing it in two with a slash of her saber. She had taken wounds, but Dash knew from Kashyyyk that Zathria was the girl to have around for that and indeed she was attending to the other Jedi in moments.

The Rhinnalian sheathed his saber, risking an affectionate nod in Ezra's direction, knowing he had used to Force to yank Dash out of harms way. He knew the feel and smell of his boyfriend's powers by now, as distinctive as his thieved cologne.

The roar that reverberated through the fog blasted all joyous thought from Dash's mind. It was the kind of primal cry that somehow gave you a very clear picture of the size and scale of its owner and there was no subterfuge this time as the fog ahead of them darkened and parted, a monstrous storm beast wading into their midst. It was a huge green scaled mass of long claws and sharp teeth, a maw big enough to eat Dash a limb at a time knashing wildly.

He didn't hesitate, marshalling the Force and throwing it at the thing before it could choose a target. It came to him quickly, with the same urgency it had on Kashyyyk but a new focus from months of practice. Several spears of ice shimmered into being in the air and he launched them at the beast, peppering it with wounds.

Too late, Dash realised it was too big to fall from such a scattered assaulted. Driven into fury by the shards impaled in its huge body, the beast went on a rampage, launching towards Ezra who was standing like a lemon on top of a rock.

"Ez, run!"

@Sreeya @Black Noise @Phoenix