Tomb of the Dark Lord: The Champion

[The Gatekeeper]

Prelude / / Theme
@Malon @Nefieslab​

The descent of the pair would proceed without impediment, but each step carried with it a weight. The weight of dozens who had fallen in this tomb before them, and the weight of the Dark Side itself closing in around them. The tomb bled evil like nowhere else on the surface of the world. It was a nexus of dark energy that had been designed and shaped by the Dark Lord himself. In front of them it would feel like the enticing whisper of a lover and behind them it was the stalking blade of a rival. It was everything they hated, loved, and feared all at once. It was the promise of unrivaled power and slavery to that power.

As their feet touched the bottom step, the room below lit up with an unnatural light that streamed down from a position unseen above. Whether technology or some witchery of the Force didn't matter, but the room was pulsing with the Force. The two would sense it immediately as the door behind them - previously obscured by the darkness - rumbled closed. There was no retreat and no leaving. Simply the two warriors.

Beyond the stairs, the pair would be able to see cages filled with abominations of all different forms. The species were unable to be seen, but it was clear that each and every one of them had been twisted by the Dark Side. To their left and right were more cages filled still with the creatures, but none were released. Not a single one had been loosed, but it was clear that the room contained enough creatures to kill the pair dozens of times over.

Despite the creatures filling the corners of the room, there was an eerie silence and stillness to the room. The air felt stifling and stagnant, threatening to steal the warmth directly from their blood. If the two managed to pass the stairs they would find a contrived path to the central dome atop further stairs and bridges, and finally the sarcophagus of the Dark Lord himself, and atop it, sitting in a groove designed to fit its pyramidal base perfectly, the prize.

To reach it, however, was no small task. Beaten, bleeding, and bruised, the pair had yet to face the Dark Lord's champion. At the center of the room, at the base of the stairs, the pair would see a hulking figure, hunched over. Approaching the size of a rancor, it crouched unmoving. Never before had anyone passed this far into the tomb to see the creature. Not since the day the tomb had been sealed.

As they took a step forward, the floor behind their feet burst into flames in the shape of a single word that would draw both their eyes.

Kovoti​

 

[Darth Tagus]

Well here they were.

Finally they had reached the last area of the tomb, the site of glory or death before them. This would be where they either won what they were looking for or they died attempting to obtain it. Of course Tagus had his preference but he was under no illusions as to his chances at all.

He was hurt and he had lost an arm to the challenges before but he refused to back down. To back down now, in the face of adversity, would be an insult to any and all true Sith who had followed him and it would go against everything he had tried to do with his life.

Aside from that, the Hunger for more of the Dark Side was strong within him and growing in recent months. So much so that the holocron at the other end of the tomb seemed to call out to him.

Drawing the Force into himself as he prepared himself, Tagus stared at the Champion that Kravos at selected centuries ago. His grip on his lightsaber tightened and he ignited it's crimson blade but made no moves closer.

He wanted it to awaken fully before he made a move against it.

 

[Zannah]

Darth Maleva, on the other hand, strolled further into the room to get a better look at the awakening champion. His size was daunting, but Maleva knew that size meant nothing when you had the Force. Therefore, it was the creature's presence in the dark side that truly intimidated her. The fear that had been building in her belly as she walked the corridor into the chamber was now turning into a heavy block of ice. Still, she nurtured and encouraged it. The power it gave to her would be necessary to survive the upcoming fight.

Of the two of them, Maleva was better off. She had been stabbed by the scorpion and lost blood in the first test, but that was the extent of her injuries. Still, she had no intentions of underestimating the beast. Her eyes went to the holocron on the pedestal. The prize. The secrets that holocron contained were worth more than all the riches of the Empire (or what was left of it). The knowledge she could learn from it might be the key to preserving the Sith in their brittle and weakened state.

She took out her lightsaber and activated the front blade. Then, digging down into the cold pit of fear in her stomach, she embraced the dark side of the Force and drew it into her. The ice in her stomach began to spread into her veins, invigorating her for the task in front of her. In ancient times, she had once read, the Zhell from Coruscant would hum a chant whenever their chiefs entered into the blaze of battle. The chants were meant to focus their mind and, if necessary, prepare them for death.

Korah mahtah
Korah rahtahmah​

She thought the words until the ancient Zhell chants drowned out her distractions. She knew what she had to do. What had to be done to preserve the Sith. And now, like a last supper spread out before her, the table had been set for her mission to be completed. All that was left was for the champion of Darth Kravos to come, and for battle to ensue... @Nefieslab @Phoenix

 

[The Gatekeeper]

It rose with a deep rumble. The instant the flames lit the floor behind them, the creature's body burst into unnatural flame as well. It burned hot enough to turn the room stifling and the air became difficult to breathe. The Dark Side radiated from it like a beacon.

Darth Kravos's spirit watched the two Sith, intending to release a portion of his abominations onto them as well. He knew that one day an unworthy Sith Lord might try to bring an army down here, and if they did there would be another army to meet them. When a team had entered his tomb, he had intended to release his toys along with his Champion. Now he wondered if it was necessary at all.

Its stood to its full height and let out a roar so loud that it could be felt in the bones. Two massive wings whipped out to the side of its body, wreathed in flame as its weapons appeared from the air. Its right hand held a sword of flame while its left held a whip of fire. It wasn't clear what this creature was capable of, but it was clear that to defeat it would take an incredible knowledge of the Force and a deep reserve of energy to draw from. But did the two combatants have that in them? After having come so far and losing so much?

It wasted not a moment as it sent the whip cutting through the air at the Emperor. Its many tails would burn through flesh as well as a lightsaber, striking all along the body from foot to head on the man's right side. In his nearly exhausted state and with a hole in his foot, dodging the attack would be difficult at best, and the pillar of fire behind him would make leaping back even more difficult.

With the newly-declared Sith Lord to the creature's right, its flaming blade was still ready to defend itself as the battle began. @Malon @Nefieslab

 

[Darth Tagus]

The creature was large, the creature was terrifying and the creature was an incredibly obvious target.

Seriously, in the time it took to reveal itself in truly dramatic fashion and ready itself to attack, Tagus had enough time to fold the Force he had already been channeling into an attack. That wasn't to say that the roar hadn't physically rocked him and the atmospheric change hadn't made the whole thing rather choking but it was to say that he didn't just stand around doing nothing as the abomination champion readied itself.

It was probably a fair thing to let the champion ready itself before he attacked but, well, since when did a Sith play fair? As the abomination made to use it's whip, Tagus lashed out with the Force in as large a Force Push as he could manage given the time he had been given to prepare. The trials before had weakened him, it was true, but Tagus still remained an almost singularly powerful Force User.

Probably pretty sad state of affairs for the long-dead Kravos but he had lived in a time of legendary powers; Tagus lived in this time and what a marked downsize it had been since those glorious days of yore.

The Force Push would slam into the abomination's whip-holding arm at the shoulder as it was bringing it back to lash out with the whip, the force of the attack causing it to stagger backwards and interrupting it's attempted whip. After all, no arm movement meant no whip attack. With his movement stunted, Tagus needed to move and stay in motion as much as possible as getting moving was what was difficult with him missing some toes.

Pushing himself forwards, towards the enemy's left side, Tagus readied himself with the Force, building it within himself again, as soon as he loosed his Force Push. As he closed the distance, he gripped his lightsaber tighter and prepared to engage again, hopefully with Zannah doing her part to push the champion as well.

The creature was powerful but if they were clever and if they worked together to create and exploit weaknesses then it could be defeated and victory still obtained.

@Malon
@Phoenix

 

[Zannah]

The Emperor was misjudging the creature. Darth Maleva could sense it. He believed its size and speed were a weakness, but he failed to sense the depths of its power—of the power that would be required to defeat it. Fortunately, the Dark Lord's champion was momentarily focused on Tagus, which gave Maleva an instant to think about her strategy and enact. She knew she couldn't go for a more brazen attack; the creature's blade was ready, and she knew it would defend itself if she struck too obviously.

...and then the Emperor went and used a Force push.

Surely, he knew he did not possess the power needed to push such a massive energy weapon? One with that many tassels. The whip-crack would happen too quickly, with too much force behind it. The mangled body of the Emperor was barely holding on after the trails in the tomb. Such an attempt would leave him unconscious at best, or torn in two should the creature break through his push.

In truth, Maleva wasn't sure she was strong enough to beat this champion. The depths of its depravity, of its darkness in the Force, were beyond anything she had ever encountered before. It would take many Sith of considerable power and competence to take down such a behemoth. Factors that were absent from this battle, despite her best efforts. Still, she was a Sith Lord. And she would draw her last breath facing her enemies. The future was always in motion. So, too, was the outcome of this battle.

Standing well outside the range of the creature's whip, she deactivated her lightsaber and belted the weapon; then, summoning as much of the Force as she could muster, she reached for the dome of the tomb above the creature's head. It was a crude and dangerous tactic, she had to admit, but with the creature's whip and attention on the Emperor and it cautious of her own blade, the only opportunity was above. She poured the Force into the cracks in dome of the tomb—cracks from a millennia of weathering and aging.

And then she pulled.

If she was successful, the ceiling would buckle above the creature's head, sending massive shards of stone, duracrete, and metal showering down on its colossal head and back. At the very least, it would serve as a distraction. If she was lucky, she might even hurt it. Only time would tell... @Phoenix @Nefieslab

 

[The Gatekeeper]

The reality of the Emperor's position was... bad. Losing an arm alone was enough to put someone out of a fight, even bringing down a legendary Sith to come along with many others. But the Emperor had not only lost an arm, he'd lost a half liter of blood, had a hole in his foot, was Force-pushing a creature the size of a rancor that was incredibly powerful in the Force, only had one hand to shape the push with, and had a lightsaber in that hand. It wasn't that the creature didn't feel the impact at all, but it was hardly the maximum power that your average Sith Lord could muster.

The hit struck his shoulder, but his forearm was still flicking the whip. His shoulder didn't even fully stop decelerating, and the whip kept on coming. With a sickening crack, the whip struck. With nothing else to stop the whip besides banking on a single attack that wasn't guaranteed to work, the tongues of fire struck home and shredded the man’s body at the legs and torso, leaving it to fall to the ground in no less than five new pieces where one had been before. Death had come.

The other Sith had taken the opportunity to move against the abomination in the moment, and it was smart of her because from here on out the creature’s entire attention would be focused on her. As the ceiling came down, its massive wings came up, shielding it as it evaded to the side of the falling rubble, but even that wasn’t enough.

It let out a gut-wrenching roar as the first of the stones - luckily not the largest - caught it’s right wing, allowing the chunks to roll off but nearly breaking the wing in and of itself. Now it was angry, though, and it channeled that through. It moved forward as the whip suddenly appeared in its right hand and its left was spewing what could only be termed an inferno at the self-proclaimed Sith Lord. It swept from her right (if she were facing the abomination) toward her left and she would be forced toward the edge of the cliff that the bridges and stairs traveled over or be burned alive by flames hot enough to melt the skin from her bones. And yet, this was only a small portion of the abomination's power.

You see, there was a story behind this creature. It was the pièce de résistance of Darth Kravos's work with abominations, but Andraste had expressly forbidden him from releasing them on the galaxy. So he hid one in his tomb instead. His champion. The pinnacle of power designed to be a challenge to any Sith Lord who walked into his tomb, no matter how powerful. And someone who had only been an Acolyte upon entering... she fought well and she fought hard, but her reserves were limited. Comparatively, the creature seemed to have no limits. @Nefieslab @Malon

 

[Zannah]

Darth Tagus was dead.

And good. He should be dead. He was weak—an infection in the Sith. But Darth Maleva was no fool. His weakness would cost her too. Her tactic had worked... somewhat. The blow had hit its mark, but the abomination was so strong in the dark side of the Force that such an attack was a trifle. It turned its considerable anger on her and unleashed what could only be described as a hellish inferno at her. So, Darth Maleva did what she could. She had one last trick that could stand against the creature, and she refused to go down without a fight.

The trick lay in the artifact she had claimed from the dead emperor during the trials. The Zageti Antgal Gauntlet. Like the abomination, the gauntlet was a relic of the first Sith—of Andraste's Sith Order, strong and powerful. Only such a relic could stand up to a creation of the mighty Darth Kravos. She threw out her left arm, which was armed with the gauntlet, and unleashed its ancient powers. The second the creatures flames reached her, the gauntlet sucked them all in—absorbing every last lick of flame.

She wasted no time in unleashing that stored energy directly back at the creature that had spat it at her—specifically back at its face, as she hoped to maim or blind it. Her only hope was that the creature's own fire could hurt it, and hurt it badly. The gauntlet had one more use left, but if it failed, she would share the fool of an emperor's fate. And she did not delight in that thought. @Phoenix

 

[The Gatekeeper]

The champion continued to pour energy into the woman, unknowingly pouring it into the woman's special gauntlet. But the creature poured Force energies outward, and she fired them right back. It continued to launch its own energy out to defend itself and caught her return fire in the center of the two of them. Suddenly, at least for the moment, the two were of equal power thanks to her tool, and that meant they were at a stalemate: two equals.

Like a ball of flames in the center of the pair, it grew until it could no longer be contained by either of them and burst. The wave of energy would travel out and strike both combatants in two parts: concussive and incendiary. Being made of flame itself, the fire didn't do a great deal to the abominations, but the concussion forced even a creature of its size to stumble back several steps. A being of Zannah's size would likely fair worse and worse still for the burns that were likely to cover her body as a result of the detonation.

The abominations didn't waste time. Having likely recovered faster than the woman, it let loose that whip once more with a sickening crack, striking for her left side where it would likely rip her to shreds as it had ripped Tagus to shreds. @Malon