Log:Explorer's Guild: Loking for Love

Explorer's Guild: Loking for Love

OOC Date: October 18, 2018
Location: Lok
Participants: Explorer's Guild, Corr Waldin, Syrus, Siha Archer, Sajin, and Netep Muri; Special Guest Stars Kasia Ashkuri and Merek

LOK

Some people say Lok is a disgusting world, but it really depends on how you feel about sand, sulphur, and pirates, because Lok is rich in all three and not much else. The Explorers landed and gathered together in Nym's Stronghold, the planet's principal settlement, and piled into a landspeeder that is too small to fit all of them comfortably while Corr continually repeated "It'll be fine". A short drive through the desert, and the landspeeder breaks the crest of a tall dune, revealing on the other side a short, squarish, sprawling assortment of stone walls, of a uniform height and about two dozen feet tall.

"This is where Hodic's notes say he found answers to his most burnin' question, before his next and even more burnin' question," Corr explains to the others as he stumbles out of the crowded transport to the sand. "Hodic bein' that bothan fella who gave us the lead on cult activity in a general sense. This here's the Great Maze of Lok, or... somethin', but it's also meant to be a center of cosmic power, according to the Pantheon of the Unyielding Eye, a mystic order on Chandrilla." The sun is scorching hot, and he's already starting to sweat. "Anyone see an entrance?"

"That wasn't too bad at all," says the 6 foot 3, broad shouldered man that was taking up most of the room as he steps out of the speeder and stretches his legs. Tugging on one of his armor plates, Syrus has a look around. He smiles warmly. It's been a while since he got to go on an adventure, so he's just happy to be along for the ride. "Looks like an entrance to me," he says, lifting his hand to gesture towards an opening to the right of the group.

Sand, sulphur, and pirates. Lok is disgusting, Kasia definitely falls into that camp, nose crinkling anytime the potent scent reaches up to tickles the senses. Her generous backside is wedged into the too small space, a backside that is currently clad in some very nice, new, clean looking trousers that were clearly tailored just for her. They're going to get so ruined here. Like the wayward leader of this expedition, she is sweating, a handkerchief clutched in one hand that she uses to mop her forehead every so often. They arrive and she too climbs out of the transport, making a quiet sound of protest against the heat. "Corr, you should find mysteries that need to be solved from the comfort of a spa." It's more good natured than an actual complaint, she knew what she was getting into. Mostly. Before Syrus points it out, she's already squinting in the same direction, and then nodding. "Yeah, that looks like an entrance to me."

Siha Archer spent the ride squished between two people, a completely sour look on the Mandalorian's face which was blissfully hidden beneath her t-visored helmet. She is not happy. And has been on many adventures, three of which she is still healing from. She will pull herself out from the speeder, limping heavily out of the way, her left leg favored, a knee brace worn, "What a bloody shavit hole, of course that little rat would have ended up here ..." Groused darkly as she uses her katana as a walking cane, gaze surveying the area of those squat stones, comfortable in her air conditioned beskar'gam, looking to where Syrus indicates and nodding her silent affirmation. It's there, right? She doesn't need to verbalize what has already been verbalized. Instead she will strike forwards in that heavy limp, not waiting for anyone else to confirm or decide on a plan.

Salty Siha.

Sajin stands right behind Kasia, hand on his hips. He nods, his helmet closed because the smell was just aweful, "Yeah that looks like and entrance, ahyup... Geez Kasia, what did you eat last night? Have some manners for the people walking behind you!" IT was in fact the planet but Sajin was probably too dumb to know the difference. "What are we looking for again?" He didn't do his homework aparently.

Merek has come in his fiber armor with matte black tones, as well as a cloak with black as well as silvers. The hood is up while he pulls that about his light armor a little bit. He steps from the speeder to look around a bit, as he listens to the others, having come with his PDA in hand to assist, as well as to learn and also manage to do some research while they investigate.

Tight spaces? Yah. No problem when you're small. Except that because you're small, you get crammed into the worst of places and sometimes sat on and whatnot. Muri unfolds herself like an arthritic cricket and half rolls, half staggers out of the speeder for a lean against it. She stretches feeling back into her limbs one joint at a time then takes a different sort of joint out of a blast vest pocket to look sadly at the crushed remains. Oi. "Mm?" a look aside clues her back into the MAZE and the fact that people are moving. Yup. It begins. She follows, swinging her arms lightly at her sides as she goes.

"We're /here/ to find out if we can find out what Hodic Trey'ya found out," Corr replies to Sajin, as though it should be obvious. "The bothan, who was with us on our last job, who gave us our last job, got kilt on Coruscant a few weeks ago and I think the reason why he was killed might be here." A pause as the man furrows a brow. "Course, only two people actually seen the body before it disappeared, but uh. We have his notes, and they say he found somethin' here, so we are too."

Siha heads towards the door that's been spotted, and Corr is quick to follow, tromping along through the sand. "All the mysteries as can be solved from a spa are inside yourself, Kasia, and that's not somewhere I can go for you." Getting philosophical up in here, the head explorer steps through the entrance into the maze. The walls inside look just like the walls outside, with no real discernible features to indicate where one is going or where one just came from. "Well, this is gonna be easy," he announces to the others with misplaced confidence. "We just keep turnin' right. Eventually we'll get to the middle. Anyone got any better ideas?"

This is a time where it would have benefited Syrus to do some research into the ancient cultures of the planet he was heading to. Syrus did not do that. No, instead, Syrus spent the entire flight to Lok enraptured by an episode of 'Parsecs of our Lives'. But, to be fair, Alec's brother who died /two seasons ago/ had /just/ walked into the hospital room. Syrus, still in disbelief, follows after the gang.

"Maybe we can find a haunted spa, so we can relax and unearth mysteries at the same time," Kasia suggests as an alternative, giving Corr a quick grin. "Given how large the galaxy is, I'm sure there has to be at least /one/ out there that will fit the bill." Siha starts tromping off, and so she's quick to turn and move along with the others, handkerchief used to swipe away beading sweat on her brow. Sajin gets a /look/ at his suggestion. "I honestly don't know what I had for dinner last night, because Hex made it and sometimes it's better to leave a little mystery, but... that wasn't me."

Siha Archer will reach into a pocket on her left gimpy thigh, drawing out a can of spray splint, the thing given a shake as she re-slings katana back to her hip, a deep snotty sniff completed as she keeps an ear out for any and all ideas, "Nope, just talk of spas and farts, let's go right, I'll mark our path every couple meters or so, then if we don't find out way that way, we'll go the opposite way. So let us try not to move at a stately pace, hmmm?" Said to the group as a hole, Siha limping to her right to spray a quick circle on the wall, nodding as she continues the quick limping pace of before, spraying as promised. SSSSSST. Shuffle-hop-limp, shuffle-hop-limp. Onwards she goes, not waiting for the others to follow.

"Oh, Hex made it? No wonder you're so gassy and bloated." She wasn't, it was the planet, "That'll do that to you." Sajin says with way too much enthusiasm. "Ohhhh, I bet you it was rat-stew." He makes a sound of content at the thought of some good old rat-stew. As Kasia, Siha, and the others start to head in. "Okay... so /what/ makes you think the answer is here. I mean, this place is pretty far away from Coruscant..." The swipes a finger off the wall, taking some goop with him, "Though it's not to far from the feel of Coruscant. Especially the lower levels." He pauses a moment, thinking deeply, "You know maybe it's me. I get thrown and tossed around so much I forget what it feels like to mess my pants." He shrugs then continues on. He who smelt it, delt it, right?

Merek walks with the others for the moment, while he shifts his cloak about him, "Well, it's an interesting place to find information," he admits, while he nods a bit to the others. He writes on his PDA a few messages, while he seems to consider all of the data.

"Hodic was a traveller, he roamed all over the galaxy, to a lotta different places, met a lotta different people, made a lotta different enemies, I expect," Corr muses back to Sajin's continued questions. "Hell, he almost made enemies out of us last time we saw him, the way he ditched us with those cultists to perform their elaborate drumming ritual without any guidance on it," right turn, right turn, after right turn. "So I don't put it past him gettin' offed in one place for what he found out at another."

Corr and Siha's simplistic approach to solving the maze is not especially fast, but it is functional, and after quite a while of pacing through the featureless stone walls the gang finally finds the middle, coming out into the center of the thing. The walls fall away, revealing a sparkling limpid pool surrounded by a quartet of tropical trees whose fronds form enticing fans of shade. "Finally," Corr pants, pulling his canteen from his belt and uncorking for a swig, wiping the back of his hand across his brow. His beige shirt is soaked through. He smells less than pleasant, but the scent of sulphur is a little less pronounced in here. "Now according to Hodic's notes, he found the secret by reaching through a window of the soul to touch the void that lies deep in the heart of all things," and again his brow furrows, "Whatever that means. Hodic had a way with words."

"An eye, maybe?" Syrus muses, looking around at the center of the maze with a smile. "This is extraordinary, Mister Waldin." He walks up to the water. "Some texts refer to bodies of water as 'voids', so...maybe the pool?" he asks, looking around at the group. He kneels down to examine the pool a little closer, 'hrmmm'ing to himself.

"Sounds like an eye to me," Kasia agrees with Syrus, but really she has no idea, this isn't her area of expertise in the slightest. If they wanted to give that window to the soul a smokey eye she could help, but this, less so. "I feel like we should have brought something and left it to bake in the speeder while we were in here. A nice treat for when we're done." She continues to sweat, she's not quite as soggy as Corr, but she's way closer to it than she would like to be.

Siha Archer licks her lips, tongue running over her teeth as she checks the straps on her weapons to ensure they're held tight and heads forwards to the pool, not stopping for a drink. Not stopping for air. Nothing. Instead she will swing her arms over her head to dive into the water in full armor, a loud sudden splash roused as a result, Siha disappearing into the dark depths, bubbles following in her wake. She is not the best of swimmers, but it's enough that she can kick kick kick and draw arms out and to her sides. Eventually the bubbles in the water cease all together, one last BLURP likely the last bit of air she had.

Hahaha, psych. Siha eventually hits the bottomand follows it upwards into a hidden chamber, walking her way out without a limp until she gets into waist-high water, limp returning without the support of the buoyant water, water falling off of her noisily as she raises gloved hands up to wipe off the front of her helmet. They shake away and eventually come to rest on her hips, and she will take a moment to look around. Silence. Sweet sweet silence away from the group above, "I might have found my new home." Murmured to herself, vox'd voice swallowed up by the chamber.

If Sajin was having an usual day, he might run in jump in with Siha like a child happy to go to the pool and cool off... and likely die because he forgot he wasn't the best swimmer. Instead, he holds himself back thinking he better not do that. "Is there anything down there Siha? I mean... is there treasure, beautiful naked women of varyin humanoid species wanting to please our every need?" He looks to Kasia, "What?" Then moves over to look around. He was on a roll this week making judement calls.

"I agree, but I ain't reachin in there," Netep mumbles with a skeptical side-eye at the water. At least...not /first/. When no churning bubbles of red froth up after her bubbles have ceased, she can feel a /little/ more confident that there's not some hungry creature lurking in its depths. She squats down and pokes a finger in it for a feel. "Esh-kha," she answers Merek. "I mean...I never saw their faces, but the language. Definitely rang a bell from some obscure re...er. Yeah anyway. Rang a bell too late and we all went down some hole. Brutal race as lore told it, bent on domination. Most o'their mumblin 'bout us was in regards to our being 'unclean'. Hence the hole." She makes a grim face, then looks around to Corr. "How long do we wait for her to float up or are you sending somebody else down there to investigate?"

Corr glances around at the others as Siha dives in and fades from view and everyone else just sort of stares. "...I'm not waiting," he answers Muri, and unbuckling his belt, he drops it next to the lagoon and plows in, taking a deep breath once he gets in up to his chest and plunging under as well.

Down, down, down, feet kicking, no fancy armor or breathing apparatus, because this was billed as the desert, who needs scuba gear? The walls of the pool narrow and then curve sharply up, and he surfaces in a cave underground, the same one Siha came up in, taking in a great gasping breath of air and only swallowing a little water in the process. The walls of the cave are fairly dark, and Corr cannot see in the dark, so for now he's just crawling up onto the solid rock, waiting for his eyes to adjust even a little. "You in here?" he whispers to the theoretical Siha. "Dark."

Back up in the maze, the sun continues to beat down, and little yellow slugs fall out of the trees into Muri's hair and onto Sajin's head. They're SULFUR SLUGS, they stick to everything, they smell like rotten eggs, and it gets worse if you smash them.

"Don't drown," is Syrus's advice to Corr before the man jumps into the puddle. The large man rests his hands on his hips and looks over to the rest of the group. "At least the weather's nice, right?" he asks with a chuckle. AHHHH SLUGS. Luckily, none of them land on Syrus, but his blaster pistol is quickly drawn and waved around.

Kasia initially hesitated in going into the water, because there are unknowns down there of a nature variety and it seemed safer here. Except then smelly nature is raining down around them in the form of sulphur slugs, and that is adequate enough incentive to get her off of dry land and into the water. She sheds her own belt, dropping it on the ground beside Corr's, and then wades out into the water. "Oh, oh this is nice," she informs the rest of the group, going until she's just beyond waist deep in the water, then dives forward and begins to swim. She's... really good at it, ducking just beneath the surface as she swims further out, then comes up for air, hair flung back sending a graceful spray of water behind her. She really seems at home in the water here. One last glance is shot back at those that remain behind, and then she dives down to follow Corr and Siha to the cave below. Sploosh, she gone.

Siha Archer is striding along the walls of the cavern down below, hands to either side of her hips as she looks and tries to make sense of what she sees. Her helmet has night vision and infrared, heavy limp dragging her along. The sound of disturbed water puts Siha on high alert immediately, katana drawn out as she twists around on her heels, greeted by the pale green image of Corr emerging from the water and his beedy eyes lit up by the night vision. Laughter then as she stares at him down the length of her sword, surprise evident in her tone, "You beige bastard, you are the /last/ person I thought had the balls to follow me down here." Her sword drops though she doesn't sheathe it, instead she turns to look back at what she was examining before, "Let me describe to you what I'm seeing here, Waldin." Siha begins, sword lifting to trace over the old arsed symbols on the wall, "These look like paintings done by an idiot child ...probably old timer paintings ..and on top ..these weird symbols. Muri might say 'arcane', I say 'gibberish', and ...there is a big assed blue eye surrounded by a gold, I think it's gold ..circle. Here ..C'mere. Put my helmet on." She will stride towards Corr, unlatching the helmet and twisting it off, the thing knocked into Corrs chest or where she anticipates it to be given where he last was.

"Huh?" Sajin looks up as something plunks against his helmet. He turns around and around as if he'd still be able to see them and his eyes would move into a third person perspective. He reaches gloved hands up and picks off a few of the slugs, holding them in his palm. "Ooohhhh... slugs. I love slugs." The whole smell belnded in with the rest of the planet so, he pops upen his helmet and pops them into his mouth. He starts to chew, holding up a thumb to the others. "Pretty good." Completely unaware or uncaring of the smell. He then starts to head towards the lagoon before stopping suddenly. There is a loud grumble, and then a squeeky fart. "Oh... Oh... no no no. Sweet Jarimiah..." He then high knees his way over towards a corner and crouches down, releasing the hard case of mudbutt that the slugs have set upon this dimwitted mortal. "Go on without me..." He says Laboredly and redfaced, "I'm guna be here a while. HYYYUNNNN." Then a look of terror comes over his face and suddenly its coming out of both ends... violently. Getting all over his armor.

Merek sems to be wishing to take a sample as he watches the slugs begin to hit some people. His collection seems to make one of them next turn to a soft mush. He still collects that, while he watches as Sajin eats one. He backs up a little bit slowly, while he sidles to where the pool is, considering following with the others, though he doesn't know much about travel in water without a ship.

Netep clears her throat, scuffing a toe in the dirt and fidgeting with her jacket and eyeing the pool like it's worse than that hole of corpses they fell into that one time and as she's engrossed in this inner conflict of wanting to know what's on the other side but also be keenly aware of her lack of aquatic skill, something wet and a little gooey splats on the side of her face.

"Did..." She reaches up, nose wrinkling with disgust to find her fingers come away equally gooed and smelly about the same time as something plops into her hair. And shoulder. And toe. And..."WHAT IS KRIFFIN HELLS!??!" she shrieks, voice screaming back at her forlornly in echoed form off the maze walls. "What!? WHY!" A glare upward and around as Muri starts to do a little jig, kicking and hopping and fighting her way out of her own clothes. Couple layers of them anyway. Sajin's no help, as he's off having his own misadventure that aids in making this crazed decision of hers all the more appealing. "ALL RIGHT!" she relents to the forces at play here and plunges in like a fool. Except there's no bottom two steps out and her toes scrape nothing but cool spring water and a surge of panic grips her which doesn't help the breathing as water seeps in somehow through her gaping maw. Fingers scrabble at the edge and she clings there, just shivering. Shivering and slugged. A lone survivor of her plunge has made its way methodically down from her crown and to her cheek where it hesitates, eyestalks pulsing in this direction and that direction, flinching back from the water. Take note, everyone, because looks like this is what it takes to seal up Muri's mouth TIGHT. Not today, slug. Not today.

A whimper and snotty nose burble beneath the surface and Muri is sinking her skinny ass to the bottom. A yellow contact floats out but she doesn't even notice, kicking spastically like a swimmer of her caliber does while hands blindly grope ahead. Some time later she breaches on the otherside, looking like a giant hairclog that's been forced out the pipe moreso than whatever's shaking and gasp-gagging under that sodden mass. "Ddid-i-idid--i--did---it."

Corr, being a medical expert, thumps Muri on the back and announces "You're alright" while he puts on the Mandalorian helmet. IS she alright? Corr doesn't really know, but she's still moving and breathing and talking, hence, alright. He spends a moment adjusting to the sensors in the helmet's visor before speaking, and nodding too. "Well, you got that right, I'd call this arcane gibberish," the man agrees with Siha's assessment of what's painted on the walls. "And the eye again. Looks like the one we saw on Kafrene on that guy's medallion, the all-seeing eye of... some word I can't remember. Maybe that's what Hodic found out down here?" He takes the helmet off, passing it to Kasia. "Here, you take a look, then give it to her." Her being Muri, who he points at in the dark. Good communication, Corr.

"This is all...very concerning," Syrus remarks to himself as the entire group disappears into the pool. That kinda thing ain't his bag, though, so he's going to stay up-top where the sane people are. "These...these slugs are gross, but...hrmmm..." he squints as he looks around, but he's just too bothered by all this nonsense to find anything worth finding.

Kasia might be just as unexpected a person to arrive down in the cave, but she emerges from the water like a stylish sea monster, hair clinging to her cheek as her breath comes in puffs. It's real dark so she does the crawl up onto steady ground, and then carefully get to her feet. The helmet is passed to her, and she takes it, twisting away and taking a step forward before she plops the thing onto her head to look around the cave with the night vision. "There are numbers here too, though I have no idea what any of this means. Someone who understands this stuff should actually see it." So she removes the helmet and tries to pass it on to Muri, shoving it in the general direction she knows Muri to be in.

Yoink. Before Muri can take the helmet Siha will yank it back, "Yeah, I didn't say you could share it, Corr. Way to be a jackass." And she pops it back on, latching it once more. Last time she shares.

Sajin is breathing heavily at the end of his painful excretions, now resting finally. He's sweaty too. "Hey... psst..." He says to Syrus, "You got any Toilet Paper?"

Merek dives at the water, though it takes a bit and it seems like he has to come back to land. As he does, he seems a bit happy with the fact he has some water with him for the weather which the planet has. He takes a few tools from the belt which he wears, then he tinkers with things he finds to try and work to learn more about the place on land.

Corr's back thumps actually do kinda help knock more of the aspirated water loose but also sends rubber-legged gal to the cavern floor. Muri doesn't even care. Now that she's sopping wet she can't tell if that's slug or soggy feathers or wet leather caught up in her hair and that's just fine.

"I..." NOOOooooo helmet. Her fingers feel around for naught but empty air. And maybe Kasia's arm. Hopefully an arm. "D-dddon't t-tell me I swam d-down here in vvvaaain. Anyone have a light? I want to see it, kerbblastit....else I'm takin my chances with the slugs. Least it's warm up there." It's /not/ that cold here, Muri.

"Uh... sorry," Corr mutters to Siha, frowning in the dark, unsure of why that's so offensive that he's done it, probably down to vastly different cultures between the military he was in and the Mandalorians. Shaking it off to deal with later, he shrugs at Muri and Kasia. "Well, looks like we seen everything we're gonna see down here. Let's swim back up with the others and get outta here." Swimming back up is much easier than diving down, as you could honestly just hold a big breath of air and it'd get you a lot of the way there, and before long he and the others are bobbing back up in the middle of the pool. "Big eye on the wall!" he calls to the others who stayed on land, paddling over to the side and pulling himself out. "Got some circles, and... a bigger circle, and... numbers. 131 a bunch of times." Groundshaking. What a thrilling adventure.

"...I know it don't seem like much, but, I think a man got killed over this, so, maybe don't go tellin' a bunch of people about it," Corr suggests to the others, pulling his sticky shirt away from his body a little as he straps his belt back on. From there, it's just a matter of following the blazes of spray left behind to backtrack to the entrance and load back into the shuttle. Presumably the meaning of what they found here would be revealed another day.

"Can somebody who saw it DRAW it at least?" Muri's still pestering when she bobs topside. Bob is generous. SPLASHFLAILCLAWS topward and out.