The Sacellum Of Ilum: Secrets To Steal

[The Storyteller]

[fancybox2]

Ilum: 1600 Hours

Ilum is a nexus in the Force. There is a power down there that we must have. Seek out the buried artifact.
---Word To The Wise: Do you risk opening the holocron before you hand it over? Can you trust your teammates not to?

Mission Page ; Dice Page ; @EmilyHuene (Viewing)
@Yuan ; @vamp [/fancybox2]

 

[Wes Thul Drast]

.

Day 2 of the Illum "campaign" and Wes was already getting sick of seeing snow. The white landscape of Illum was becoming irritating to see, and he could already tell that he won't be paying many visits to the temple that was going to be built here. The cold deterred him, and besides that, he wasn't very interested in the religion its priests were preaching.

He was in a landspeeder, hands on the controls, with another Sith at his side--a Pantoran, though her face was covered by a mask. She was heavily tattooed, and glowing in the relative darkness of the 2 person speeder. Wes had insisted on one with tinted windows, for the sole reason that the exurbant amount of snow caused light to bounce back and it hurt his eyes, making it hard to drive. Tint would at least alleviate the pain somewhat. Just another reason to dislike Illum.

They were a few hundred meters away from the cave where the artifact had been reported to be hidden, and the trip had been relatively conversation-less, so the Drast decided to see whether his companion was as talkative as his previous ones had been. After a heavy, but quiet sigh, he said--

"Cool mask."

@Yuan

 

[Shikari]

Shikari sat in the passenger seat of the Two-person speeder, resting her head on her hand and looking out the window as the terrain shot past. Honestly, she would have greatly preferred to have her own speeder. Shikari preferred to pilot herself. But when she had arrived on Ilum her partner for this mission was already waiting on her and this speeder was the only one present. Whether he had set it up, or their sponsor had done so, it seemed that two separate speeders were not in the equation. So, Shikari had to accept her fate and cross her fingers that this other sith was a decent driver.

As they sped along, Shikari came to realize that her partner in this venture, Wes Drast, didn't seem to be much of a talker. The sped along in silence for a good little while before he sighed and issued her a compliment on her mask. When it came to small talk, Shikari could take it or leave it, but this talk seemed exceptionally small. Shikari glanced over at Wes. "Thanks. You should think about getting a custom piece of your own. It'll make you stand out from all those mediocre sith who wear the same marauder armor." Shikari gazed out the window again as they shot across the landscape. She rather liked this place. Pantorans had a stronger resistance to colder temperatures than humans did, and thus Shikari donned mostly her usual attire for this mission, only adding a long coat which draped down to almost her ankles. Under her coat, in her thigh holster was her ZA-13 blaster pistol, and two CZ Riot Gas canisters. She had left her concussion grenades behind as they were apparently going to be heading underground or into some cave if the reports they were given were to be believed. For the same reason (forced close quarters) she had left her rifle behind as well. Of course, she wouldn't have left her lightsabers on such a mission, and the twin curved hilts were crossed on the back of her waist.

Shikari shifted in her seat a bit. This ride was longer than she had been expecting. She would have taken a nap if she had trusted the sith sitting next to her not to get handsy. But she didn't know him, and one never knew what to expect around other sith. "So... What do you think of this Eriana Fox?" Shikari glanced over at Wes again out of the corner of her eye. She didn't know if he was personally connected with Eriana or not and wanted to judge his reaction to what she was about to say. "I've never met her in person. Only talked to her through communiques for this mission. I like any sith willing to step up and push for progress, but she certainly has a somewhat... religious, sort of feel to her. Our conversation left a bit of a 'Holier than thou' taste in my mouth."

@vamp

 

[Wes Thul Drast]

.

The Pantoran, unsurprisingly, reminded of him of a cat. Not just because of the way she looked (read: she was a big cat) but her personality as well. Eyes that seemed lazy but wise, if not a bit accusative. Speech that was blunt, though not in a bad way. Also, the speeder bore the faint smell of wet cat from the melting snow in her fur, not that he minded.

"I met her before she delved into whatever cult she discovered," he replied with a casual tone of voice. "They paired us up for a prisoner transport and the prisoner broke out, but we tracked him down. She carries herself surprisingly well on the battlefield for a blind chick." His eyes were on the road; frozen tundra or not, he still had to drive safe, especially considering the amount of crevices (and snow beasts) that littered this cold shithole of a planet.

"We haven't spoken on more than one occasion since then, but I don't dig the religious vibe too much either. Still, so long as it helps the Empire"—he shrugged—"I don't see much harm in it. Hopefully she won't start burning our own soldiers at the stake."

They were nearing the cave now. Wes stopped the speeder a few seconds after he finished speaking, and as he rose out of it, cold wind digging into his face, he asked a question of his own. "You think the legends about Illum are true? Spirits and abominations and the like, roaming the planet?"

True or not, he was prepared. His lightsaber, holstered on the right side of his belt, alongside his new acquisition—a Jedi Master's saberstaff. Wes had stashed it yesterday after the mission with Aerak. He didn't really intend to use it yet, but it was good to have as a back-up. The prestige it brought him didn't hurt either.

@Yuan

 

[Shikari]

Shikari rose out of the other side of the speeder as Wes stepped out of his. The wind whipped her pink-ish purple hair around her face as she gazed off at the cave entrance just a short walk away. She wasn't bothered by the cold. "Hundreds of years ago, there was a massive battle here that climaxed with some sort of massive force weapon being set off by the jedi and killing hundreds of jedi and sith, all in one instant. I understand the theory behind phantoms within the force, but I've never seen one. One thing is for sure, though. If they do exist I would say that this would be an excellent place to find them. But before we go jumping at shadows, its worth considering that these could just be stories made up to scare people away. Never seen an abomination either, though we know they exist from history. Don't know what they would be doing creeping around on some wasteland planet like this one though. In answer to your question, I don't know. But I heard that you ran into some jedi on your last trip down here?" Shikari gestured to the saber staff on Wes's waist raising an eyebrow inquisitively. "I don't know what we'll be facing in there, but I suggest you pack accordingly."

With that said, Shikari trudged off through the snow, heading towards the cave entrance. The entrance was fairly small, but the cavern just inside was large. It was only a little bit warmer, but getting out of the wind was a nice change. Looking around, there were crystals growing out of the walls the seemed to emanate a faint glow. Glancing behind her at Wes Shikari called out. "Did you happen to see any magnesium torches in the speeder? I forgot to look." It would be nice if the one who had organized this little trip had planned ahead as Shikari didn't like spending her credits on excess supplies if she could avoid it.

 

[Wes Thul Drast]

.

Wes reached into the bag slung across his back and pulled out two glowsticks, white in color. He'd brought some of his own, having asked someone to buy them and then come back last night, inspired by Aerak's use of them. They were not anticipating Jedi, and white would ensure they see things clearly, so he didn't get blue one like his previous companion had.

He handed Shikari a glow stick and then snapped his to turn it on. The Drast entered the cave, stomping his feet to get rid of the snow and being surprised to find that the ice on the floor of the cave was ridiculously slippery. "Watch out," he warned. "This is the slipperiest goddamn cave on Illum." Eriana clearly wanted him to break his neck.

The two advanced further into the cave through a tunnel, illuminating the carvings in the ice that had been left in darkness for centuries. An uncomfortable feeling had set down in his gut, originating from a point underground, and got more powerful as they got closer—at least the artifact was acting as a beacon.

He could feel eyes on the back of his head, and it was not the Pantoran that was looking. Wes turned and saw nothing in the darkness, but the feeling remained. In the distance, something crashed.

The Drast turned back around, eyes on the path ahead, but there was something there. A human-shaped shadow stood in front of him and blocked the tunnel. It was as if his light just couldn't get past it; the silhouette was a black so dark it looked like an actual dark hole in front of him. It stood there, wordless, as if observing him.

"Hello?" Without warning, the shadow took off into the depths of the tunnel ahead of them. Wonderful.

Dice roll for this post​

@Yuan

 

[Shikari]

Shikari took the glow stick from Wes and sighed to herself. These things never worked as well as you wanted them to. Magnesium torches were better. They burned with real flame which produced an even brighter light than normal. But, oh well. It would certainly teach Shikari a thing or two about packing her own bag for these sorts of excursions. Shikari cracked her glow stick, but when she did, nothing happened. She shook the stick a bit, trying to get the chemicals inside to mix like they were supposed to. As she did, she heard Wes call out into the dark cave. Shikari looked up at Wes, then out into the cavern where he was looking. The shadow had already darted, and she saw nothing. After scanning the darkness for a second, Shikari detected nothing. She glanced back at Wes. "What? Did you see something? Don't get skittish and start jumping at shadows now. We have to keep our wits about us with the risk of jedi around."

Finally getting her glow stick going, Shikari stood straight and held up the stick, scanning their surroundings. "Now, the question is, which caverns do we need to search? I assume in a cave this size, there are going to be a lot of them." Thinking about their situation for a moment, Shikari closed her eyes and reached out with the force. She allowed the force to flow through her and out into the cave. She wasn't strong enough to reach far beyond the cavern they we're currently in, but she sent tendrils of her force sense flowing through each opening leading further into the cave. She searched every crack and cranny, leaving no stone unturned.

As Shikari's sense reached a jagged crack in the face of the rock to their right, she was suddenly hit by something through the force. It was almost like a ping on a radar, but it was huge and Shikari actually stumbled back from the force of it. One thing was for sure, it bore the nature of the dark side. Shikari stood and dusted herself off. "Well I'm no detective, but I think what we are looking for is that way." She pointed. "There's some sort of huge force signature radiating from that direction. That crack in the wall there doesn't look natural either. Old, but not natural." Shikari picked up her glow sticks and set off towards the crack, not waiting to see if Wes followed her. She figured he would.

@vamp

Dice roll for this post.

 

[Wes Thul Drast]

.

"No, there was something here." Or had there been? "A shadow, I think."

Shikari mentioned the signature, and Wes could feel it too. Once she pointed it out, it became even clearer, but the huge blot in the Force radiated dark energy, so he supposed that was their target. Hopefully, the shadow wouldn't turn out to be hostile, though it was hard to tell. "Careful," he called after her, his voice a bit more hushed than usual. Wes followed the Pantoran, but his steps were cautious. "There's a possibility that we're getting baited into something."

He ignited his lightsaber and jabbed it into the crack, the ice giving way almost immediately. It shattered and bits of it fell to the floor, leaving a door-shaped tunnel, which lead the way into darkness. With a shrug, the Drast walked through, lightsaber still ignited, having ditched the glowstick so they would see the light and have a beacon to lead them out when they returned. His red blade gave off enough light anyway.

He stepped through, but the deeper he went, the less visibility he had. It was as if something was absorbing the light completely. Even his lightsaber began to feel useless to combat the dark. In a few seconds, he was completely blind. Wes moved his blade around, and he could hear it whirling around, but he couldn't see anything.

"Are you blind too?" he asked the Pantoran, then realized—not even her tattoos were visible. Something tapped him on the shoulder. "Did you just tap me?" Something touched his other shoulder. Then his mouth. And it stayed there, like a hand trying to keep him silent. The Drast's face bore a look of alarm that was invisible in the darkness. He tried to make a sound, but his mouth was covered. Something wrapped around his torso from behind.

"Mmph! Mmmmph!" He struggled, but it began pulling. Wes fell down, dropping his lightsaber, and he could feel himself being dragged on the icy floor, his ass hitting every possible rock. The Sith kicked and squirmed, his fear giving way to anger. Who the hell thought they could kidnap him?

The Sith hadn't even meant to attack, his fight-or-flight reflex choosing flight, but the dark side gathered to his palm, and he put it on his chest. There was a cold aura there, but as soon as the energy hit it, the aura recoiled. He felt himself get dropped suddenly, and then the lights came on. He was 10 meters away from Shikari. His lightsaber was about 6 away. "Don't tell me you didn't just see that."

Wes turned to look behind him. The darkness continued, except it began right next to him, like a wall. The abyss stared back.

Dice roll for this post​

@Yuan

 

[Shikari]

Shikari had indeed seen something this time. As Wes had advanced into the next tunnel, the shadows from the walls had seemed to close in on him, the light from his saber becoming dimmer and dimmer from her point of view. Shikari couldn't tell what was happening, and she quickly drew her blaster pistol from her thigh holster, raising it to point at... what? Looking up, Wes was gone. Ahead was only darkness. Shikari could still hear Wes's muffled shouts, but she couldn't tell where they were coming from. She couldn't shoot forward as she didn't know if she would hit Wes or not, so she swung her aim off to the side, towards the wall where the shadow was emanating from.

She was about to pull the trigger, when suddenly, the shadows retreated, revealing Wes and his lightsaber just ahead, about ten meters away from her down the tunnel, his lightsaber lay on the ground slightly closer to her. Ahead of Wes was still that darkness, just hanging there as if goading them to come nearer. "Yeah, that one I saw." Shikari said aloud to answer Wes's question. Blaster still drawn, Shikari advanced to where Wes's lightsaber hilt lay on the ground. She slowly knelt, keeping her eyes and her blaster on the wall of darkness and picked up the saber hilt. Tossing Wes his saber back, Shikari planted her feet firmly and drew her free right hand into a fist in front of her chest. "Watch yourself. I'm going to try something."

Shikari closed her eyes and gathered the force within her and channeled it through herself, focusing it's power in the palm of her hand. Opening her eyes, she stretched out her right hand to point the palm at the wall of blackness. She was about to launch a strong blast of force energy to try to push the darkness back, when suddenly, a tendril of the dark stuff shot out of the wall to her right and wrapped around her forearm. "What the karking hell!?" The dark tendril immediately began pulling Shikari by the arm back towards the wall. Shikari raised her blaster and popped two shots into the tunnel wall, hoping that she could in some way injure whatever the hell this thing was.

@vamp

 

[Wes Thul Drast]

.

Now it was targeting Shikari as well. Wes wasn't sure what exactly they were fighting, but being near it filled him with an unmistakeable sense of dread, and it emanated cold. He stood up and ran toward Shikari, grabbing his lightsaber on the way.

The Drast wasn't sure how to help, but he had an idea. "Close your eyes," he said, holding his left palm out. He channeled the Force to it, then released a burst of light from his hand. The tendril withdrew, and the darkness recoiled, leaving the tunnel slightly brighter. Wes re-ignited his lightsaber and held it up. It bathed them in red light, a welcome sight now. They pushed on.

On several occasions, he had to turn and look behind him, having heard a sound. Each time, he saw nothing. Still, after what the two Sith had already seen, no one could blame them for jumping at shadows.

Thankfully, the rest of the trip was relatively uneventful. They went deeper and deeper underground, and after what felt like an eternity, they finally reached a dimly lit chamber. Wait—

"Light? Why is there lig—Ohhhhh." He interrupted himself. Wes noticed the source, and it was what appeared to be the holocron, giving off a powerful red glow. It was pulsating, and it was impossible to tell how long it had been sitting there. What struck Wes the most about the room were the skeletons. There were, quiet literally, about a hundred, all scattered or sprawled in various positions. The floor was entirely covered in bones, and at the very center, like a twisted contest prize, was the holocron.

He sighed. This was not getting any easier.

The Drast stepped forward, ignited lightsaber still in hand, but couldn't move more. The bones began shifting, skeletons bursting practically out of the ground. Bony hands reached out and grabbed his legs. He slashed at the hands with his lightsaber, cleaving them in half, but they were replaced by more pairs. Wes tried to fight back, but the skeletons were powerful, their strength drawing from the dark side energy of the holocron.

They climbed on him, slowly pushing him to the ground. Wes dropped his lightsaber, and slowly began sinking into the bones. His face covered by bones, tied down under the pile, he struggled to breathe. And then everything went dark.

Dice rolls for this post: 1, 2​

@Yuan

 

[Shikari]

This place was crazy. It made no sense to Shikari. Sure, she was familiar with the dark side of the force, but clearly not with every aspect of it. Luckily, Wes had the idea to use light generated from the force to drive back the seemingly sentient darkness. The play worked, and Shikari was freed from the grip of the unknown. "Thanks." Shikari muttered to Wes as she rubbed her wrist tenderly. He really had saved her there, but she was loath to admit it. She needed to keep her wits about her. She had panicked there. That was the only reason she had needed saving in the first place.

Shikari followed Wes for the rest of the trip through the caves, more than happy to let him go first. As they reached the holocron chamber and the light from the object illuminated the room full of skeletons, Shikari thought about suggesting a careful approach, but Wes was already on the move... And then he wasn't. The skeletons came alive and began to engulf the Drast who seemed to be overwhelmed by their numbers. Shikari didn't really know what to do, but when she saw Wes drop his lightsaber she knew he was going down. Shikari ignited one of her own sabers and leapt in. She didn't really know why she wanted to save Wes so bad. It was probably just that she didn't want to be alone in a cave full of the living dead.

Shikari leapt in after Wes, thinking to herself that this was a rather poor idea as she did. After slashing at the skeletons for a moment, she found herself in a similar predicament. As the skeletons crawled over her a skeletal hand reached up and grabbed her saber, pulling it from her grasp. Shikari took a deep breath and tried to think of what to do. If getting out wasn't an option, then perhaps diving further in was the way to go. She pulled her blaster pistol out and shot through several skeletons ahead of her, lunging forward towards the holocron. But, as she did, another skeletal hand grabbed her ankle and pulled her down. Her outstretched hand was also grabbed and her blaster pistol was wrenched from her hand. This was going exceedingly unwell for the two sith.

@vamp

Dice

 

[Wes Thul Drast]

.

As the darkness consumed him and he began suffocating, Wes was overcome by a single emotion. It wasn't panic, or regret, or sadness. No, he was completely overwhelmed with an anger hot as a thousand suns. He would not meet his end here, on this snowy shithole, getting suffocated by skeletons that had been sitting there for hundreds of years. There was no honor in that. That wasn't his destiny. He would live to fight another day, and he would die when it was time. Not now.

The anger flowed through him, his body shaking underneath the pile of bones. It coursed through his veins like venom, heating him up and empowering him more and more. The Sith struggled, trying to lift his arms or legs above the surface, but found that he couldn't, and it only fed the demon within. The build-up slowly reached its crescendo. He could feel it coming.

Wes burst out of the pile of skeletons with a concussive blast so strong that it embedded the bones into the icy ceiling above. Every one of the bodies that had been clambering on top of him earlier were now gone, and the Drast found himself lying on the floor. He glanced up at the ceiling again, but the bones had disappeared.

"You have proven yourself. Rise, child of darkness." It wasn't a voice. It was a thought in his head, though he hadn't formulated it. He looked to Shikari, lying on the floor as well, but she didn't seem to have heard it as well. Wes kept quiet as he stood, walking to the holocron and grabbing it with eagerness. He'd worked for this.

It would take effort to crack open the holocron, and this was no place for that. He would need to concentrate on it, any distraction having the potential to ruin his progress and force him to start again. Wes stashed the holocron in the pocket of his cloak, looking up at Shikari after, daring her to challenge his claim. He'd saved her life, and they both knew it.

Dice rolls for this post: 1, 2​

@Yuan

 

[Shikari]

Shikari slowly rose from the floor where she had apparently been struggling to pull out her second saber. There had certainly been living skeletons there just a moment before, clawing all over her body as they tried to drag her down to... She shuddered to think where they might have been trying to pull her to. Gazing around, she saw Wes standing there, holding the holocron they had been trying to reach, a smug look on his face. Not only was the look smug, but it was directed at HER of all places! It was a look that seemed to dare her to challenge him to his apparent claim over the valuable sith artifact. How the hell could he look at her like that after she had leapt into the maw of the best to try and save his sorry shleb!?

Shikari reach out with the force and drew her lightsaber that had fallen to the ground back to her hand. She held it there for a second, glaring at Wes in the red glow as the blade hummed in her hand. After a moment though Shikari sighed and disengaged her blade, returning the hilt to her belt. "Fine then. Let me be the bigger person. Thanks for ending that nightmare for both of us. Take the holocron, it's already proved to be more trouble than it was worth in my opinion. Just promise whenever you're done with it you'll give it to Eriana like we're supposed to so we can claim whatever rewards may be coming our way." Shikari turned and started heading for the tunnel they had come from. She glanced back over her shoulder at Wes. "Oh, and your welcome for jumping in after you, by the way."

@vamp