Open to 1 The Tython Table: A Ghost Story

[Alhazred]

Dagobah

Alhazred stepped off the small shuttle craft and felt the cool moist mud between his webbed toes. He took a deep breath of the Dagobah air and listened to the sounds of rampent wildlife all around him. This planet was truly, for lack of a better word, wild.

On his back, the small tumor-like thing inside the DX tank wiggled and squirmed. Alhazred smiled. "Yes, I can feel it too. It is a perfect place, is it not?"

A perfect place for many things. A place to relax in a weird way, a place to study biology, a place to connect with nature, even a place to prove one's survival skills worthy. But for Alhazred, it was a place to meditate and to study the Force. Dagobah was among the purest places in the galaxy. The Force here stretched as widely as the wild vines from the trees, and thicker than the muddy waters that who knows what dwelled within.

It was also a place of rumors. Long had people whispered that a mysterious artifact of power resided somewhere in this thick murky jungle. While Alhazred held no foolhardy beliefs that he alone could find such a thing here in all the wildlife, a part of him was hopefuly. If anything, just exploring the planet would be a welcome diversion for the Nu-Vaal.

After taking another deep breath, Alhazred adjusted his turban and began to walk through the muddy ground in a random direction.

 

[Essla Ta'dek]

The ARC-170 grumbled uncooperativly as Essla cautiously navigated it towards the swampy mudball of the planet. "Blasted hyperdrive," she muttered. The fighter's drive had quit midway through a jump, causing the ship to tumble into realspace. This had been the nearest planet she could land on where she wouldn't either be eaten or die due to lack of oxygen. Hopefully. Her droid whistled mournfuly. "Yes, Cee-Too, I don't like this place. But unless you can repair a hyperdrive in space, we are going to land here." The Wespre broke through the dense fog, Essla searching for a good spot to land. There! A clearing in the trees…with another ship already there. The Twi'lek frowned. Odd. Well, maybe they had some parts she could use. Her fighter whined as it descended vertically towards the clearing, landing skids extending. The ship touched down beautifully. Essla was about to start the shutdown sequence when the nose strut suddenly sunk a few inches into a thick patch of mud. "Lovely," she sighed, deactivating the engines and popping the canopy with a hiss. The green-skinned female rose up and, after grabbing her E-11, slid down, boots squelching in the mud. She made a face. "Just lovely," she repeated.
@Narzen (Hope this post is okay!)

 

[Alhazred]

Alhazred, having only made a few strides into the mud, stopped at the sound of a landing ship. Eyebrows raised, Alhazred turned around just in time to see the ship land.

"Well...I wasn't expecting to witness this..." Alhazred whispered to himself as the Twilek exited her ship. Her landing couldn't have been better...or worse, Alhazred noted as the front of the ship started to sink. His own ship was holding up well enough, so hopefully her own ship wouldn't sink too quickly.

Unbeknowest to Alhazred as he tried to approached the Twilek, something else was watching. In the trees next to the waters, hand--sized pale blue things of ethereal light shifted and darted between the trees and along the waterbanks. They seemed to hover just outside of the open region of trees the two were in. They seemed to approach slowly, but then backed off, as if dragged back by something. They clung to the trees and the mud, but left no marks in anything.

"You are afar from Coruscant colleen" Alhazred tried to jokingly shout, though only a strained whisper came out. He wasn't sure if this was some smuggler looking for a place to hide, a random passerby who truly needed help, or some kind of sith or imperial plot, but he knew he would regret turning away from this person. "I thought I'd be alone here"

@Interdictor

 

[Essla Ta'dek]

Essla turned to look at the source of the voice and came face-to-face with a tentacle-faced being. A Nu-Vaal, if she remembered her hyperspace reading correctly. "Ah, hello. I seem to have found the other visitor to this beautiful mudball," she said, her voice dripping with sarcasm when she said beautiful. Removing her helmet, she looked at her half-sunken landing gear and sighed. "First the hyperdrive unit, now this. Great." The Twi'lek looked back at the alien. "What brings you here?" As she spoke, Cee-Too hovered down onto a dry patch of ground, whistling at Essla. "Yes, I'm aware the ship is stuck," she said with a sigh. Her boots were already muddy, and her black armor was splatterd with it in places.
@Narzen

 

[Alhazred]

Alhazred chortled at the woman's obvious distaste for Dagobah. Her wearing her annoyance on her shoulder was a welcome change compared to many of the Jedi he dealt with.

"I'm just here to meditate and teach my spawn here the basics of survival" Alhazred half-joked while studying the Twilek closely. She didn't seem like she was faking her frustrations. If this was some ploy, it was a good one. The thing on his back wiggled excitedly. Even without telepathy, Alhazred could sense an ounce of trust from his spawn.

The droid spoke. Alhazred, who didn't speak a spark of binary, had to infer the droid's statements.

"I confess I am ignorant on matters of hyperdrive units..." Alhazred stated as he approached the ship closer to study where it had begun to sink into the mud. "...but I may have a way to get your vessel unstuck. Course, I don't want to interfere with any of your own methods"

@Interdictor

 

[Essla Ta'dek]

Essla blinked at the Nu-Vaal when he spoke. She didn't know that species' biology, but she was guessing 'spawn' was some equivalent to 'child.' As for meditation… "Jedi, huh?" she said, half as a question and half as a statement. She glanced back at her ship, "Well, I can probably fix it with the parts I have, but it might take a little longer," the Twi'lek said with a sigh. "Ha, any methods you have are probably better than mine." Cee-Too let out a long string of beeps. "No, Cee-Too, I'm afraid repeating that to the Wespre won't work. Plus, that kind of language will get you deactivated," Essla responded with a raised eyebrow. The astromech hooted indignantly. "I do not talk like that! …mostly."
@Narzen

 

[Alhazred]

Alhazred nodded at the woman's statements. There was no point in hiding his occupation now. And if he could provide a helping hand, he would. After all, who knew where this soul's path lay in the future?

"Alright, one moment..." Alhazred stated as he took a step back from the ship's nose section. "It's been a while since I've tried this..."

Without waiting for the Twilek to question her choices, Alhazred closed his eyes and brought his webbed hands together before him. The music of the Force was loud here on Dagobah, so it was easy to get attuned to its invisible ethereal song. Slowly, Alhaazred opened both hands and stretch his fingers as far as they could, bending the digits in awkward angles and creating elaborate, yet odd, vague shapes. As a practitioner of Sign casting, Alhazred had learned to channel the force through his entire body, and allow his hands be the focal point of his efforts. In his head, the Force's ethereal song shifted with each finger movement, each shift of the arm, and each twitch of the nerve.

Having found the right shapes, Alhazred pulled one hand backwards. Small beads of droplets of water began to rise from the ground surrounding where the ship had started to sink. Alhazred clenched his toothless maw and pulled farther, throwing his arm up and over his head. The droplets increased in size and in numbers, until they began to merge and then, against the laws of gravity, flowed upwards into the air. With eyes still closed, Alhazred was unable to witness the small stream he was pulling from the ground and channeling it over and behind him into the nearby waters.

As if in response to the usage of the Force, the small pale-blue things began to resonate and glow brighter and brighter. A soft, but ominious song could be audibly and discreetly heard in the wind.

The stream slowed as the ground beneath the ship lost all its water. Now, the ship sat atop and partially in dry sand and soil, a substance much easier to free from. With luck, the ship's engines would have no trouble at all.

Alhazred breathed a sigh as he relaxed his body. He collapsed backwards in slight exhaustion.

"Heh, I thought that would be harder..." Alhazred mused outloud.

@Interdictor

 

[Essla Ta'dek]

Essla watched in awe as the Nu-Vaal literally drained the stream around the fighter's nose gear, revealing the much drier bed underneath. A rodent of some sort squeaked as it's cover was drained away, and it madly sprinted for the surrounding trees. The Twi'lek tilted her head a little as the music died away. "Strange," she commented. "But thank you, sir. The option Cee-Too would have come up with would have probably involved explosions. He spends too much time around me." She said the last part with a small grin, elbowing the astromech as the droid beeped in humorous acknowledgement.
@Narzen

 

[Alhazred]

Alhazred chuckled at the comment. "Are you saying you teach the worse habits of the two? Perhaps I should not of helped" Alhazred figured the droid would make another, most likely sassy, joke on the woman's expense. It was not meant to be an attack of any kind, simply a joke.

"Name is Alhazred, Jedi Knight as you correctly guessed" the Nu-Vaal held out a hand in greeting and in an effort for help standing up. "You've chosen a very interesting place to..."

Alhazred stopped and squinted his eyes at the tree line. "Are....are you expecting friends of some kind? What am I saying you just landed..."

The things who had been singing at the usage of Force had silenced themselves, but their appearances stayed. Some had even begun to waver and float closer and closer to the two, and yet would pull back occassionally, as if some ethereal leash had reached its limit. One of them who had gotten the closest of a meter or so, seemed to reach out with a hand of some kind.

"Fascinating...." Alhazred commented, stroking his face tendrils. "I have no idea what this is but...fascinating..."

@Interdictor

 

[Essla Ta'dek]

Essla harrumphed playfully as Cee-Too warbled another insult. "Perhaps," she said with a grin. When Alhazred asked if she was expecting company, she blinked. "No…?" Then she spotted the blue creatures, one of them reaching out to touch her arm. "Hey, hey, nope. No touching," she said, her other arm sneaking towards the underarm holster under her jacket. Her astromech twirled in a circle, letting out low-pitched beeps as he tried to figure out what was going on. "Fascinating is a word that should be reserved for well-executed dogfighting maneuvers and things in museums, not creatures that might kill you!"
@Narzen

 

[Alhazred]

"I don't think its a threat..." Alhazred stated, albeit cautiously. "I admit, it is eerie and a bit questioning, but I sense no danger from it..."

At his word, the thing, or rather, the air around the thing, suddenly shrieked an ear-piercing cry. As ethereal as it looked, the thing appeared to be pierced by something. A crude outline of a hook could be witnessed inside the pale blue light that began to flicker and fade rapidly. The Force around everyone trembled and shook violently. The pale blue thing's hand-esque appendage stretched franticly out to grab anything. A helping hand, a fallen log, even the mud itself. But its efforts were in vain, as its hand passed through the material while it was violently dragged back into the dark treeline.

"By the void!" Alhazred declared, taken aback. The screaming around the pale thing continued. The other blue things in the treeline scatterred, as if they sensed that whatever was affecting their compatriot also was coming for them.

"Wait, stop!" Alhazred cried out as he broke into a spring after the thing being dragged. His short legs had little hope of keeping up in the mud, but that did not stop the Nu-Vaal from trying. His spawn on his back flailed about wildly with each pace, no doubt in confusion at what was happening.

However, Alhazred eventually had to stop. Heaving over to catch his breath, he looked around. If the Twilek had followed him, he'd look at her and ask "Do you have anything to keep track of our location?"

(OOC: Roll a d20 if you want. Anything higher then 5 will reveal something alive is stalking you. Anything higher than 10 will also reveal a weak distress call in the distance. 15 will reveal two separate distress calls)

@Interdictor

 

[Essla Ta'dek]

Essla was about to make another comment when the hook suddenly caught the blue creature. "Wha-hey!" she said, pulling out her blaster pistol and firing two shots in the general direction of the hook. The thing vanished into the woods, and Essla slumped a little, slowing her pace. Even C2 hooted sadly. When Alhazred asked about navigation, she brighted up a little. "That I can do. Cee-Too, scan the area and check the navigation maps." The astromech wheetled for a moment, then quieted down as he started scaninng. Suddenly he beeped urgently, and Esla let out a long and quiet string of curses in Twi'leki. "Followed and a distress signal? Lovely." She slowly looked around, weapon at the ready.
@Narzen

 

[Alhazred]

Alhazred turned around and looked at the Twilek with a raised eyebrow.

"A Distress signal...out here? I thought you'd be the only one sending one out with how you landed..."

Alhazred paused in thought. Something felt off. The entire area felt off. Even as he pondered quietly, he shuddered. The entire swamp area dropped a few degrees in temperature. While some light still pierced from the heavens, the shadows from the trees seemed to stretch ever so slightly, like the coming of dusk. The animal noises seemed silenced themselves as 'something' approached.

"I confess, I'm not sure what is wisest at the moment. Experience has taught me to leave things alone and let the Force handle it, but a distress signal is a different matter...."

The small turban headed alien shook his head in doubt. "I'm no fan of leaving someone else in trouble. But if what your droid said is we're being followed.... I don't know, something feels off. I... I am truly at a lost for words miss."

"I'm sorry, I'm normally not like this" Alhazred lied. "If you desire, you can return with you to your ship. No sense in getting both of us harmed. But I must find that distress signal. Something is off and I'd hate to let someone else be suffering because of it."

@Interdictor

 

[Essla Ta'dek]

(OOC: I got a 12 on the roll. Forgot to note that.)
Essla frowned. "You and me both," she said. Everything around her suddenly seemed very quiet, like the planet was holding its breath. The Twi'lek shivered, noticing the drop in temperature as well. "Sometimes the best decision is running into trouble," she commented with a small grin. "And I don't want to see anyone die that doesn't deserve it." Cee-Too whistled sharply when the Nu-Vaal said that Essla could go back to her ship. "Don't worry, Cee-Too, I'm staying. Now, make yourself useful and triangulate the distress signal." The little droid let out an exasperated ba-bleep that Essla was glad the Nu-Vaal couldn't understand. Mostly because it was the type of language she wouldn't even touch with a ten-foot pole.
@Narzen

 

[Alhazred]

Alhazred nodded. It was comforting, in a strange way, that this woman whom he had no knowledge about, was willing to stick by his side. She could've been an imperial for all he knew, and he would've preferred having someone nearby.

The signal would show the source was about a 5 kilometers ahead. A hike to be sure, especially with the mud waters, but doable. With luck, the duo and droid would find the source soon.

The swamp planet certainly earned its reputation for being a mudhole. With each step, Alhazred's feet squished and had to take some effort to be pulled out with a squelching sounding pop. And the entire place felt slightly chilly. But what was strange was the lack of animals and wildlife. There were no buzzing of bugs, nor cawing of birds. The snakes were not slithering, nor were the larger animals making themselves known. Even the plants seemed to show signs of decay as the two made progress.

"I'm sorry, I don't think I got your name..." Alhazred asked, trying to break the unnerving silence. "Like I said, I'm Alhazred, Jedi Knight. Figured this place would be a good place to meditate, you know? A place so raw with the Force and whatnot..."

As the two made their way, the sound of footsteps squelching behind them could be softly heard. The lifeform on the scanner seemed to follow the two slowly, but surely. But whenever someone glanced in the direction of it, there was nothing there, save the trees that stood completely still. The noises of footsteps would stop.

Worse yet, if the two and the droid looked for them, they'd find there to be no footprints in the mud.

@Interdictor

 

[Essla Ta'dek]

Essla muttered a few curses in Twi'leki as she tramped through the mud. Her leg armor was more mud than armor at this point, and she was sick of it. The dying vegetation and lack of animals rubbed her the wrong way. I don't like this, she thought. Cee-Too echoed her sentiment with a sad beep. The Twi'lek sighed. She'd checked behind them more than six times, but every time she saw nothing. "Essla," she answered in respons to the Jedi's question. "Signal is a few kilometers ahead." Blasted mud.
@Narzen

 

[Alhazred]

"Alright. Just got to keep in motion then. Once we get there, I can do that trick I did back at the ship to get the mud off your armor if you desire Miss Ess-"

Alhazred stopped. Before him, a mighty bog blocked the path. The entire place looked like it had been carved out of the ground, with broken plants and smashed trees all along the edges and inside the wide-reaching bog. Pieces of metal floated listlessly on the waters. Two distinct smells arose. The smell of something foul and the smell of gas.

One of the metal plates floating closely was marked with something. Underneath the mud that soaked part of it, an emblem could be barely seen.

"Oh my....What do you reckon this is?" Alhazred asked, refrencing both the bog in general and the metal plate nearby.

The temperature dropped again. The Nu-Vaal shivered and bundled himself slightly before taking another step into the bog. Hopefully the small pieces of ground sticking out of the water, with the sticks poking out, would be easier to traverse than...

SNAP

Alhazred looked down. That was not a usual snapping of a stick. Bending down, Alhazred grabbed the thing and began to wipe it off curiously. The mud covered sticks around it were arranged in a peculiar pattern, he realized now that he looked at them. Perhaps they were part of something larger...

Alhazred gasped as he dropped the pale white thing he had inadvertently broken into two. Even as he stepped back away from it, the femur bone of the humanoid didn't stay broken for long. As the temperature dropped again, the bone slowly began to reknit itself whole, the Dark Side reforging the body in perfect preservation.

"This was a bad idea...this... this is a graveyard, a...a...!" Alhazred started to panic, but didn't get a chance to finish his thoughts.

Behind the two, the lifeform made itself known. Floating inches off the ground, the obsidian black-burnt skeleton mimicked all the movements of a human walking. Where its left hand should have been, a large metal hook had been fastened to its floating wrist. All around it, blue mists swirled and congealed around the bones, forming a misty sort of body. But the two weren't in perfect sync. Where the skeleton moved, the body seemed to be dragged along a second later.

"FRESH BODIES FOR THE CREW....FRESH SOULS FOR MY BODY" The thing whispered as it raised its hook to point. Somewhere between a conglomeration of Force ghosts and a powerful Dark Spirit, the thing began to laugh. The blue body around the thing began to scream in agony and fear as the thing began to float closer towards the two heroes, hook raised to strike.

@Interdictor

Spoiler: OOC

If it isn't clear, this is the main thing we will have to deal with. Shooting it will damage it, but not destroy it entirely, as the bones will reknit themselves. Only by progressing will we find a way to defeat it. If it also wasn't clear, this is the thing that grabbed that one blue thing earlier

 

[Essla Ta'dek]

Essla trailed after Alhazred, nodding when the alien said she could clean her armor later. When they arrived at the bog, she merely sighed. Yay, mud. "…Maybe Mandalorian in design…?" she mused but was rudely interrupted by the snapping of a twig. She looked over in annoyance to see the source of the noise. Hold up… "Kriff," she muttered. Then, the bone started to fix itself. Unusual. Cee-Too hooted nervously as the bones began to form into a phantom. Then came the inevitable bad-guy speech about blood and souls or something. "Cute speech," Essla said with an eyerole, drawing her blaster pistol, "Now shut up and die, please." She fired three shots at the ghost-thing.
@Narzen