Ask Kashyyyk The Depths of Madness

Maxims Tionson

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The Wookiees who had been taken as slaves had been returned to their tribes, the Trandoshans dealt with according to Wookiee tribal law and their camp dismantled by the furious dwellers of the trees. All was well within this section of the forests of Kashyyyk save for the cave that sat upon the edge of the slaver's camp that he and Indy had seen before.

Max's whole purpose on Kashyyyk had been based on the Madclaw who had gone suddenly, completely, mad without warning. Yes the Madclaw had been captured and briefly enslaved but the freed slaves reported he had escaped down into the cave before emerging completely enraged. After emerging from the cave, the Wookiee who was to become a Madclaw fled without even looking back at his captured brethren.

But all the reports said the same; before he went into the cave he was a stellar example of a warrior Wookiee and when he returned from the caves his mind was completely and utterly gone.

Standing at the edge of the cave's mouth now, Max could believe it. There was a foul stench that rose from the cave and only some of it was the real, physical, smell of rotting and decaying meat. Beyond that was a 'stench' that could only be perceived through the Force, a perversion that could only belong to the Dark Side of the Force. But it was old... ancient really...

"Indy."
he spoke quietly even as he drew his lightsaber, "We are entering the realm of the enemy now."


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The last time she was here, she nearly lost an arm. But of course, who was she to turn up her nose at something as mysterious as a former glorious warrior gone mad. Max seemed to know more than her, but that was hardly surprising. She usually didn't get apprised, just sent places... but this was different.

This reeked.

She screwed her nose at the literal smell, withdrawing her own lightsaber. Her golden eyes flickered to her fellow Jedi... and felt her shoulders drop slightly. She tilted her hat back from her face slightly... and gave a faint grin.
"Yeah, well... into the heart of darkness we go."

Hopefully this time, he wouldn't try to heal her again. Her shoulder still ached from their last little forest jaunt, but she anticipated this far more than diplomatic attempts, or at least there was more she could do than with pretty speeches. But it was nice to have a fellow Jedi she could trust her back to in a proper fight.

And someone she could trust to be a strong force of the Light. From the feel of darkness within... they would need all the strength they could have to face what lurked ahead.


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Stepping into the cave, Max immediately noticed the webbing that seemed abundant. The local variant of giant spider had made their home here it would seem. These were another creature that Max had encountered on Kashyyyk that had informed his distaste for the planet's fauna.

Honestly, no one planet should have so many deadly predators - surely evolution and food chains would mean that there would have to be some docile creatures? Herbivores? Anything that didn't seem to exist solely to attack him for having the sheer and naked audacity to set foot in their territory.

He ignited his lightsaber as he marched forwards.

This was all that saved him.

From the hidden dark ceiling of the cave, a giant spider descended on him in a deadly pounce. Max reacted as quickly as he could, bringing his lightsaber blade up in a horizontal block across his upper chest and head. The weight of the spider sent him tumbling to the ground with the spider snarling and snapping atop of him. Held in the burning embrace of his lightsaber, Max held back two of it's legs it had been preparing to skewer him on.

The lightsaber burned and sank deeper into the legs, causing the spider to shriek and scream, thrash and attempt to lower it's mouth to bite at him. Reinforcing his arms with the Force, Max held the spider at bay as his lightsaber continued to burn into it.

Further back in the cave another two of the creatures would make themselves known but hold off on attacking for the moment, the smell of one of their own cooking against a lightsaber tempered their rage.



Wyyyschokk but I'm going to use the term "spider" in posts because screw that name.

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Well, at least it wasn't snakes.

She stumbled back when Max was attacked from above, and as a result tripped on a stone. So much for being willing to attack... thank goodness she hadn't her lightsaber on yet, but the stumble caught her knee on a rock, and it gashed across her shin, causing a cut. She grunted, and let out a hiss, holding out her lightsaber in case any more spiders attempted to lash out in her direction.

It wasn't deep, but it would make complicated maneuvering difficult.


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Max wasn't sure what was going on with Indy - he could hear some commotion but he was a bit too busy to really see what was going on outside of his pitched battle with the Spider. Leaning to one side, he let the spider's sharpened legs run down the length of his blade towards him.

The spider seemed to screech in delight at seeing it's legs coming closer and it was because of this focus on the attack that it failed to realize that Max had slipped the point of his blade upwards. With a yell, Max pushed himself to the left at the same time he thrust up with his saber.

Spider legs stabbed into the ground just to the right of Max's head as his lightsaber punched straight through almost all of the spider's eyes to cook the inside of it's tiny skull. With a grunt of effort, he launched the dead spider down the cave with the Force, watching with a grim sort of accomplishment how it's corpse bashed into one of the other spiders.

He spied Indy on the ground.

"... what are you doing down there?"




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She didn't even have time to respond; when he turned to glance in her direction, the un-bashed spider suddenly lunged forward towards him, uttering a screech. She activated her lightsaber and lunged upright past Max with a sharp grunt, stabbing past one sharp leg and through the brain, feeling it shudder and seize with a lurch of revulsion before dropping dead.

Two down, one to go, and it skittered from underneath the body, letting out an eerie screech.

"...Taking in the sights, of course," she replied, yanking her lightsaber back from the corpse of her own spider and grimacing at the stench the cooked flesh made.

...Ugh. After this, she'd probably have to shower a good, long time to forget the feeling of those sharp hairy legs and that flailing that close to her own body. She didn't like spiders, but they still beat more Trandos.

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Taking in the sights huh?

Max was about to give a quip comeback when it happened.

The last spider seemed to sense that both of them were slightly distracted and it used that to attack. Spring forwards, Max was caught almost completely off-guard as the spider completely ignored Indy (who was closer) to instead pounce at him. His brought his lightsaber up in a quick defense and he was able to parry one of it's stabbing legs.

But not one of the others.

Max screamed in pain as the leg lanced downwards at his head, his instinctive head-turning being the only thing that stopped his head from being impaled. Instead the razor-sharp spider leg came down at an angle, cutting through his left eye and carving a bloody gouge along the left side of his head.



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She didn't have time to react, but as it lunged towards Max, her first reaction was to slash at its' abdomen, or at least one of its' legs... but she missed, as it suddenly skittered back, having made its' first mark on Max.

But then it seemed to remember that Max wasn't the only one in existence. And now it was going to focus on her... hopefully her companion would prevail enough, or that she would finally get another stab in, but the pain in her leg flared brightly once more, causing her to stumble down to one knee.

Kark.


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Pain was not something new to Max but losing his eye and taking the hit along the left side of his face was not something he was ever going to be able to forget. Grunting in pain, Max let go of his lightsaber for a moment and instead he reached within himself for the Force as his ally.

For a second he felt it; the urge to use his pain and his anger, to use them both and force the Force to obey him. The temptation was just suddenly there, in an instant, and it was all he could think about.

Thankfully it didn't take him even an instant to ignore it. Rather than dip into the Dark Side, he cast his pain and anger into the Force and reached out with the Force. He could tell that his left eye was gone and his left ear at least half gone. That might not have been the case had he immediately gotten medical attention but he hadn't.

Instead he put everything he had into the Force.

The spider came barreling at Indy before stopping suddenly. It shuddered and spasmed in place as Max forced it into stasis to ensure that Indy would get her chance to strike.



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She wasn't going to disappoint.

Gathering herself inwards, it would have at first seemed that the Jedi had surrendered... but then, she suddenly lurched forward. The spider was still shrieking as she slashed downwards, first slicing off its' front legs. Then across its' clacking mandibles.

She ended it by burying her lightsaber up to the hilt through its' small head and almost through the abdomen, feeling it shudder violently one last time before falling limp. She deactivated her lightsaber and limped her way back to Max, taking in the shredded eye, the blood... she reached out her unarmed hand, golden eyes concerned.

"Hey, want me to help with that?"

Probably not, but she wouldn't make his mistake and just trying to go ahead and heal it up without warning. Besides, bleeding freely in this place didn't seem a wise idea... and her leg was starting to throb. She could ignore it for now, but eventually it would need some serious looking after.


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Max could honestly say that he didn't actually hear Indy when she was speaking to him. There was a growing ringing sound in his left ear and it was really off-putting, droning out any other sound except for the sounds his body was making. Was his heartbeat always that damned loud?

Pulling some basic bandages from one of the small pouches along his belt, Max reached up and blindly, literally on that side, started trying to poke and tug at the edges of the gash. He was trying to see how wide and how deep it was but with his fingertips feeling numb he was only succeeding it widening the gash slightly, causing it to bleed even heavier than before.

The liquid remains of his eye ran down through the bloody gash to leak onto the cave floor.

Grunting in pain, Max closed his remaining eye and dropped the bandage as he instead focused on the pain. Once again he began pushing it out into the Force rather than taking it into himself and dwelling on it. He grimaced as he forced himself back to the present, his fingertips no longer numb and the ringing dying down.

"... eye think I'm going to need some help applying the bandages."


Was it awful? Yes.

Did it help? Oddly enough? Also yes.



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She groaned aloud at that, wincing as he tried to just do his own thing. All Jedi had many things in common... mostly a willingness to help others, patience, that sort of thing.

Willful stubbornness was also another trait, and she recalled with a wry internal grin her Master had berated her on many occasions the same bone-headed singular thinking. Instead of taking up her offer, he continued to dig through his pack, half-blind no less, and not only make it bleed more, but cracked one of the literal worst dad jokes she ever heard. She very nearly rolled her own eyes, but stepped closer, frowning in concentration.


"Stay still, stubborn man, unless you want to bleed out here too..." she muttered, then flicked an apologetic glance to his remaining eye. "I'm trying to help anyways, so don't. Move."

Like most Jedi, she had basic training, but beyond that, it was all self field application. She closed her eyes... and he would have seen, with his remaining vision, the softest golden glow, and a familiar, pleasant warmth. She focused first on the gash wound itself, feeling flesh knit together, and then, the ringing in his ears would fade as that, too, would be repaired and restored. But his eye...

When she finally stopped, she blinked hazily, then stumbled back slightly, feeling the cave ever so subtly tilt beneath her.
"There. Not perfect... but you're almost good as new. How you feeling, Max?" She placed her hands on her hips, peering at him with her head subtly tilted, waiting to see his reaction.

Perhaps they ought to take a breather before continuing on...


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Yeah stubbornness was something that Max had never really bothered to get out of his system even as an adult, let alone as a Jedi, because it was something that had saved his life on countless occasions. This time? Well this time actually had very little to do with stubbornness and a lot more to do with the ringing that had made it so hard to actually hear what Indy was saying to him. He worked his jaw a little bit.

"Eye'll try to keep that in mind."


He was probably going to stop using those terrible jokes soon but right now they helped him. They didn't do much but humor was something that lifted his spirits and took his mind off the pain, which made it easier for him to dispel the pain into the Force. Of course it wasn't too effective but it meant it wasn't influencing his decision making processes and that was what mattered.

As instructed he didn't move and he didn't speak as Indy did her best to heal him - it was better than his own best that was for damned sure. With her healing it felt as though the injury had happened weeks, maybe even a month or two, ago rather than a few seconds ago and the injury itself reflected that. His eye was entirely gone at this stage, leaving the socket which dried and healed as much as it could naturally. Along the side of his face the gash had healed enough to be an angry read scar as opposed to an open wound, as though it had just lost it's scabs and was fresh skin.

He reached up at touched the top of his left ear - which was now an inch or two shorter. Rubbing at it, he was rather happy to find that it was sore and it ached but it didn't bleed.

"Much better, thank you."
he admitted with a grin, "I feel like I've wrestled a giant spider but I no longer feel like said giant spider is still stabbing me - so much progress in my mind."

Standing up was a little bit jarring due to the blood loss but it wasn't anything too dangerous so he just stood still for a moment until the dizziness left him. Turning to look at Indy he became serious.

"Are you ready to proceed?"



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She slowly raised her brows at him cracking jokes, waiting a beat or two with a disbelieving stare.

She then let loose a laugh, shaking her head. Her long violet braid swung with the motion, and she flicked it back over her shoulder, giving him a stare.
"Really? Those are the ones you're going with?" she replied, shaking her head again with a chuckle. As he continued to speak, however, she frowned, all joviality disappearing.

"...Maybe. Just let me take care of this first," she gestured towards her leg. She couldn't put weight on it anymore, and before he could offer, she held up a hand.

"No offense, but I couldn't brave another healing touch from you until you've taken a breather yourself. These things, these spiders..."
she grimaced, then knelt.

Bandaging was easy enough, but she would have to actually kneel down and tend to it first. She knew firsthand what could happen if you didn't tend to wounds in action when you could... and who knew what else lurked in there ahead.


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Max grinned a little bit. They both knew that his jokes were bad and they also both knew the only reason he was telling them was because he was attempting to lighten both of their moods. It didn't matter that neither of them believed the jokes or even enjoyed the jokes because the thought was there. He shrugged helplessly and spread his hands as if to say 'what can I say?' before letting the subject drop again.

He grimaced at the mention of his healing.

"Whereas you seem to have the knack for it."
he agreed, running a finger along the length of the gash-turned-scar, "You made this almost look good."

Gathering his lightsaber from where it had fallen on the ground, he checked to make sure it was still in working order before turning back to look down into the depths of the cave. He frowned slightly as he stared down into the darkness with his newly solo eye. Rubbing at his beard, he checked the cave again.

"There's not enough webbing here for this to be a spider's colony."
he observed quietly, "And that means something compelled those three spiders to stand guard over this entrance. This is just the beginning, Indy."


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She had healed Max, but she wasn't going to use any more of her own capabilities on herself just yet. Thankfully, the cut wasn't too deep, but leaving it untreated in an unknown cave was a very bad idea in the first place; she knelt down, accessing one of the pouches of her own pak, and brought out antiseptic and wrapping gauze, taking care to clean and dress.

It went quickly and easily enough; soon the pain was dulled to a manageable level, and she stood back up, testing her weight and noting with satisfaction the pressure of the bandage was enough she hardly felt a thing. She allowed a brief smile at Max's compliment, tilting her head.
"Thank you."

When he addressed the rest of the cave though, she sighed... and nodded in agreement, huffing softly as she gathered her own lightsaber hilt close to her.

"I suppose that means break time's over. Shall we continue?"

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Maxims Tionson

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Seemed that she had dressed her own wound just as well as she could and they were on the move again. This time he kept his saber ignited at one end as he led the way, burning through some of the stray webs that the spiders had constructed. It seemed to confirm his suspicion that this had not actually been a spider's nest as the webbing was in no way deep or thick enough for that. Also there was a distinct lack of egg sacs.

As they went deeper and deeper into the cave it became clearer that, at some point, the rock had been carved either by precision tools or by years of work with hand tools. The rocky surface of the cave gave way to the smooth, almost glossy, finish of black stone that looked almost inky in the darkness.

Max gripped his lightsaber tighter as the Dark Side presence throbbed in the back of his mind and made it even more likely to him that this was unnatural. Reaching a small entryway, Max paused when he noticed that there would have been, at one point, stone stairs that would have connected the entrance to what was below. At some point the stone stairs had been demolished, leaving a not-at-all insurmountable drop to the stone floor below.

The chamber was shaped as a giant dome, as if in mockery of a Temple, with a single onyx totem in the centre that radiated the Dark Side to such a degree that he could almost taste it. But what drew the eye was the single, lone, enemy that called the chamber home alongside the Dark Side obelisk.

A terentatek.

Max extinguished his lightsaber.

"We need to fall back."
he declared bluntly, not taking his eyes off the enemy before them, which stared up at him with a manic grin. It wasn't able to climb out through this entrance but it just seemed to know that they would be back. And with friends. "We shall assail this Darkness another day."


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A terektatek.

She had only heard of them in legends; dimly, she was aware she was staring intensely past his shoulders, eyeing the beast, the Temple-like atmosphere... the obelisk.

She was tempted, for a brief moment, to leap down and get a closer look, but the haze abruptly cleared when Max mentioned leaving. Gold eyes stared at him for a brief moment... and then she sighed, turning away.
"For the best," came her short response.

"Three eyes against ones with more than two is hardly a fair advantage anyways." And they needed time to gather allies, rest and recover. It was bound to be interesting to meet more fellow Knights, she supposed...

So long as they didn't saddle her with a Padawan just yet. She wasn't ready trying to cover someone else's ass while she was covering her own at the same time. She struggled enough making sure Max lived as it was.


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