Log:Jedi: A Lonely Place to Die pt.II

A Lonely Place to Die pt.II

OOC Date: November 6, 2015 (Optional)
Location: Nal Hutta
Participants: Zandra naMuriel, Chani Tahn, Jax Greystorm

[ Jax Greystorm (Jax) | 20:16:00 ]

The last galactic standard day had been interesting to say the least, Jax had limped the Helix Interceptor, the Painted Guardian, to Nar Shaddaa. Chani had gotten medical help in the form of anti-venom, bacta patches, and some antibacterial treatment. They had learned that the snake's venom was mild enough that one strike would make you sick. Several strikes was another store. The team had laid low at Zandra's apartment. Then borrowed one of Kasia's ships to return to the planet, the Treasure Trap. The swoop bikes had 'mysteriously' disappeared.

Now the team was back, with three (3) doses of antivenom. At the island itself was another speeder, a speeder truck,and a pair of Gank were examining the damage to the site.

[ Zandra naMuriel (Zan) | 20:23:39 ]

"So much for a secret visit," Zan murmurs to Jax as they approach and spy others there investigating the damage. "Do we wait for them to leave or try to convince them to do so?" She shrugs though, as by the time they see the speeder, truck and the pair of Gank, it's likely too late for them to stay hidden. Likely. At least their ship is safe back where they left it. "Here we go," she murmurs, stepping forward. "Are these your pet snakes?" she asks. Her lightsaber in hand, but not yet ignited -- ready to defend, as needed.

[ Chani Tahn (Chani) | 20:27:29 ]

Rather than engage in conversation with the two that have shown up with a speeder bike and a truck, Chani winds her way around behind the truck itself to see if she can discern any of its cargo. Why bring a truck all the way out here if not to haul something? Or pick something up. She checks to see whether or not the cage is still in place above the pit or if it's been lowered, just like she invesitgates the back of the repulsorlift vehicle should she find any transparent viewport that might allow her to see into it. It'd be far better to be prepared for a nasty surprise than put all their attention on the two out in the open, after all. And after yesterday, Chani isn't taking any chances if she doesn't have to. This is definitely one of those times.

-[ Jax Greystorm (Jax) | 20:39:21 ]

The crane and the cage are visibly gone, and when Chani looks inside the back of the truck the mangled remains of both have been stashed in the speeder truck. The pair of Ganks had been examining the site and at the sound of Zandra's voice. They look up to eye the woman and they both turn to pull blasters at her, "Halt! You're on the private grounds of His Grand Excellancy Lobbel the hutt." Then eyeing Zandra the closest one cocks his head, "How do you know about the snakes? Did you do this? Hands where we can see them." He demands.

Jax had surrendered himself with the force and shadow. He was in the area but not making a sound or revealing himself yet.

[ Zandra naMuriel (Zan) | 20:41:59 ]

Zan's hands are where they can see them, though she does have that hilt in hand. It's obviously not a blaster though, so it can't be much of a weapon, right? "Lobbel the Hutt is it?" she asks, "I thought this belonged to Snellir?" She's literally trying to sow some confusion here. "But what do you mean, did I do what? Last I was here, there was a crane and a cage, and snakes. But - things do seem to have changed since then.

[ Chani Tahn (Chani) | 20:46:49 ]

The contents of the truck seem uninteresting aside from the buckled remains of the crane and the cage. Chani wonders what could have crumpled up the metal like it is. Or maybe the two investigating the pit had simply decided to let the whole crane tumble over rather than trying to preserve it. She stays close to the cast shadow of the vehicle and keeps herself small against it. It's that very thing that she wills in her mind: be hidden. There's not much of a view from where she is, but it's not difficult to overhear Zandra's conversation with the pair in such close proximity. Part of her also wonders if the snakes have been removed from the equation. They were quite curiously staring down into the hole prior to Zandra engaging them in conversation.

[ Jax Greystorm (Jax) | 20:55:15 ]

The two Ganks stand there preplexed for a moment. Before the one closest to the pit, who has actually lowered his weapon for the moment, says, "Wait, Snellir? I though Her Royal Grandness died three cycl..." That causes Aurek to snap out of his confusion for a moment, "Garn, shut up. I think she's trying to confuse us. Lets feed her to the snakes. She's trespassed before. We'll blame this on her. Maybe Lobbel won't punish us for letting his favorite way of offing people that annoy him get Kriffed up?"

[ Zandra naMuriel (Zan) | 21:00:12 ]

"You kriffed up a Hutt's favourite way to off people who annoy him? Pretty sure that means you're next into the pit," Zan says. "Even if you try to blame me for your failure." She has her finger right on the button of her lightsaber, but she's giving them the opportunity to run. "You probably should just run for it." She's giving them a chance to just leave, truthfully. Whether or not they'll listen? That's another story.

[ Chani Tahn (Chani) | 21:03:12 ]

The situation is starting to turn south, but hasn't gone the way of violence yet. Chani hopes that it doesn't. She remains crouched where she is, though prepared to move if need be. She'll have to one way or another: whether they try to attack Zandra or simlpy get in their vehicles and leave, Chani won't be waiting in the shadow provided by the vehicle forever. She breathes steadily and ensures it's kept controlled. Her knee protest being dug into the ground, but she ignores that minor pain. Better to have a small ache in her knee than provoke an attack from the sentients she doesn't recognize. She files it away in her mind for later to ask one of them if they know what they're dealing with. The galaxy never ceases to show her new things.

[ Jax Greystorm (Jax) | 21:11:43 ]

The two cyborg non humans look at each other for a moment, "Run for it." The closest one to Zandra says and the furtherst one nods his head. They're dreamy sounding and moving. Then the pair as if on autopilot go and load up in the speeder truck. It starts up and the pair drive away. They will be half way to Nar Shaddaa before they come out of it and really be in hot water.

The speeder truck driver never sees Chani and leaves without it being a problem for her.

Jax appears at the snake pit not far from where the second one was. He was ready to attack. "Guess that's one way to get rid of unwanted attention."

- [ Zandra naMuriel (Zan) | 21:15:40 ]

Zandra blinks as her suggestion is taken. "It worked? It worked. Oh, well, I guess that practice with Ben is paying off," she says. Though she obviously has put some practice into that skill since the last time she and Jax were discussing it at least. "Now then, where were we before we were so rudely interrupted?" A glance to the newly appearing Jax at his words. Then she looks to Chani. "Hey, Chani. Come check this out. It looks like it needs a key of some sort." She shows the rock ring, the metal plate and the circular indentation to the other woman, since that was totally out of everyone's concentration when they were leaving. Zan takes a moment, while doing so to concentrate a bit, bringing herself back to calm and ready for anything. Hopefully.

[ Chani Tahn (Chani) | 21:19:23 ]

"I'm glad we didn't have to fight." Rising from her crouched position, Chani makes her way towards where Zandra and Jax are gathered. "Hopefully they'll be too concerned with themselves to report us being here. The remains of the crane and cage were in the back of their truck. It looked pretty mangled." Information imparted to the others, she adjusts her gaze to the indicated parts. "That key could be anywhere. The pit.. or the Hutt's compound." She doesn't like to think about having to try to search for such a thing in the submerged water down at the bottom of the well. Chani also figures it likely they'll have to do something with it. Those doors could contain the necessary information they need to figure out whatever puzzle they face now.

[ Jax Greystorm (Jax) | 21:29:21 ]

Jax turns to look around at the walls that are crumbled. He's walking around and he comes to stand at the remains of mural on a wall. There is a bit of a phrase it takes him to clean up and he calls out, "Don't know if it will help us. A jedi's Light will pierce any barrier. I think. That or a review for the Blue Light Bar."

[ Zandra naMuriel (Zan) | 21:35:07 ]

Zandra pauses, frowning as she thinks back. "Yesterday, I had the feeling that I should search myself for the key," she puts in. Do either of you have the same thought?" She tilts her head, moving to see what Jax has found. "A Jedi's light? A lightsaber?" she hazards a guess.

[ Chani Tahn (Chani) | 21:35:27 ]

While Jax searches through the ruins and Zandra tackles the problem in front of us with her own method, Chani decides to inhale deep in through her nose and harder out through her mouth. There's a method to it, and the exhale triggers a sound that seems like it's coming from somewhere above where she breathes. She doesn't force away the sensory input coming at her from all sides. She simply.. let's go. She doesn't care about the smell. She doesn't care about the heat. The stale taste of the swamp's air doesn't bother her anymore. Chani's eyes drift shut and she tries to imagine herself in an ocean of literally nothing. Not waves. Not some kind of sound. Just nothingness. She tries simply to be still and to exist as a small thread in the weave of the universe's fabric. When her eyes open, she doesn't look like she'd achieved a state of relaxation.

"We're.. not thinking of something. Like we already have the answer and we're just not applying it the right way. We're overlooking.. or overthinking."

[ Jax Greystorm (Jax) | 21:40:50 ]

Jax looks at Zandra, "A jedi's light could be many things. I would say Master Yoda said we're not these crude forms but light. Soemthing like that. I'm horrible with quotes." Then he looks at the groove and listens to Chani, "Perhaps we are over thinking it. Zandra thinks it might be our sabers? One of you guys want to try?"

[ Zandra naMuriel (Zan) | 21:44:14 ]

"if the base of a saber is supposed to fit in that circular indentation, mine probably won't work, given it's dual bladed. It will have to be one of yours?" A pause as she considers it, and then she says, "If not that, maybe we can shift senses and see through the stone and such to figure out how it works? Or - We're not these crude forms, but light - maybe so, but what light can we create? I mean, short of some of the rather interesting methods that those Jedi Masters used to end up dead?" Zan frowns, and then she says, "Maybe we just need to meditate?"

[ Chani Tahn (Chani) | 21:49:11 ]

"Everyone designs their saber differently, though. Not the same width, configuration..," Chani trails off, but she thinks the point is made regarding Zandra's suggestion that the circular indentation might fit the hilt of a lightsaber. Chani steps over to where the circular indentation is. "I mean, I'm willing to try anything." Just volunteering words won't help them advance much. They need to start applying process of elimination. Drawing her lightsaber from her belt, Chani ensures the emitter shroud is pointing upwards and attempts to match up the base of the hilt with the indentation that's present. If nothing else, it will be a quick check to see if it's even viable, and if it isn't, they can move on to something else.

Jax watches Chani use her saber to try to activate the ring. The Corellian looks for a moment, "Is it doing anything?" He shrugs to Zandra. "Well if we meet this Katarn guy, I'm going to ask him to be more complete in his notes."

[ Zandra naMuriel (Zan) | 22:05:38 ]

Zan watches, curious, though she's not having much luck meditating. "I suspect he might have been in a rush?" she offers, a little wryly. Then she takes a breath, trying again to meditate, to see if she can get some idea of something useful to do. "I don't see or hear anything?" she replies, though her gaze goes to Chani to see if there's any sign of something working. Or not.

[ Chani Tahn (Chani) | 22:07:55 ]

Placing the base of her lightsaber into the configuration does nothing. Studying it for a longer moment, she gets the nagging sensation that this is right, just not quite. Taking the hilt up and out, she faces the emitter shroud down and replaces it back into the circular indentation. What happens next actually makes her startle and her hand lightly jerks away from her lightsaber. Deep within the ground and the stone, rumbling machinery comes to life. A loud cacophony of rushing water sounds down in the pit, but it tapers off quickly. Chani can see the edge of the water around the hill bubbling and churning as excess fluid evacuates out into it. The sound of shifting stones is more quiet, but nonetheless audible. There are handholds leading down into the pit where before it was simply a flat wall. "Uh.."

" [ Jax Greystorm (Jax) | 22:14:04 ]

Well the snakes were gone, except for the one or two that slither back up on the small hill by the water line. They're not going to be a problem for our exit. Jax raises an eyebrow, "Never knew you could do that and nice other than the snakes are in the water we got to go through to get home. Hopefully they'll be gone by the time we're back." Then he starts to find climb down the hand holds to the bottom. He calls up. "There's two doors down here. Both with those inserts and it's mostly dry down here. Snake free too."

[ Zandra naMuriel (Zan) | 22:20:05 ]

Zandra grins at Chani, with a big smile. "Nice job," she says, nodding her head with sincerity. "Come on, let's go - " A pause as she's about to head down, and she says, "Jax, I have a feeling that the answer is in whatever is beyond the door to the right." She finds the hand holds and makes her way down to stand there by Jax, examining the situation. "Do you want to try it or shall I?"

"Or should we let Chani, since she sorted out the first one?"

[ Chani Tahn (Chani) | 22:21:12 ]

There's nothing reliable to attach the hook of her blaster's ascension line to, so Chani doesn't bother with it at all. Instead, she hooks her lightsaber to her belt and then begins to climb down into the pit with the handholds that appeared once she activated the mechanism at the top. The smell is far more tolerable now that the stagnant pool of skeleton and snake infested water has been purged, but there's no denying that it is still unpleasant. It is the scent of old decay. Once she gets one step away from the bottom, Chani steps off the handholds and into the muck, kicking up mud around the knee-high leather boots that sheath each leg. Her nose wrinkles up out of instinct. It's earthy down here. And wet. "Don't let me have all the fun."

[ Jax Greystorm (Jax) | 22:25:14 ]

At Chani's comment about not having all the fun, Jax puts saber to the plate for the door to the right and turns on the weapon. Moment's later the door to the left opens. It leads a couple of meeters in and dead ins. The Corellian frowns, "I don't think that's right."

[ Zandra naMuriel (Zan) | 22:30:03 ]

Zan grins at Chani's comment, shrugging a bit, as Jax uses the key, and the left door opens. Blink. "Wait," she says, rubbing her head. "This Kyle Katarn guy really likes puzzles too much," she grumbles. "The right door - so how do we open that one?" Pause. Shrug. Zan looks around to see if she can find an answer, but so far she's not figuring much. The smell is earth, wet and really not fun, nor is squelching in the mud. At least she's not got any leeches that she's seen. yet.

[ Chani Tahn (Chani) | 22:32:42 ]

"One of you just stepped on something." Chani wasn't looking through the door as it opened. She was listening for the sound of any more snakes that might be slithering around. It primes her hearing for more than just that, though, and despite the grinding of the internal systems of untold age, Chani had picked up the metallic tap of a metal plate being stepped on by a boot. She immediately casts her eyes to the ground towards where Jax and Zandra walk. "Or maybe I did." Chani looks down to her own feet and prods at the mud with the tip of her boot, hoping that she'll find it again with the rounded curve of the sole. It's dark down here. She pulls her lightsaber from her belt again, but this time activates it by depressing the stud on the hilt to illuminate around her.

Chani Tahn depresses the metallic button on her cylindrical metallic lightsaber hilt and with an electric snap-hiss a brilliant blue energy beam rises forth!

[ Jax Greystorm (Jax) | 22:35:35 ]

Chani's saber lights up the foor to luminate that there's a third plate to use a saber in the floor. Jax turns off his saber and the door to the left closes. "Yeah he does. I'm not really complaining. I have a filling this was meant to confuse anyone with a saber and not allow them direct access." He looks to Zan, "You want to see if your saber works?"

[ Zandra naMuriel (Zan) | 22:41:35 ]

Zan tilts her head, freezing at Chani's words. A plate? That doesn't sound good, does it? "Did we set off a trap?" She takes a long moment to consider it all, and nods her head. "Sure, I can try," she offers. She moves forward to try applying her saber to the floor plate, curiously. Carefully. But she's not having much luck, perhaps being too gentle or too careful with her saber. Or just flat out wrong.

[ Chani Tahn (Chani) | 22:46:04 ]

"It makes you wonder how Master Skywalker's friend was able to make it through all this." Chani looks up when Jax manages to find the plate. She approaches as Zandra tries her lightsaber, but it doesn't seem to produce any sort of effect. "Maybe it's clogged with mud?" Chani approaches and squats down near the plate. She refuses to plant her knee into the ground, despite the aching throb where her bite protests being in such a position. Using her fingers, she attempts to clear the plate of some of the mud before using the emitter shroud of her own lightsaber against it. The hilt is definitely going to need to be cleaned after this trip. The door to the right whisks open and what faces them is not a dead end, but a path down.

[ Jax Greystorm (Jax) | 22:53:25 ]

"He probably rode the crane down, froze the snakes or used the force to make friends with them, I'm not sure about the plate in the floor. Still working that out. THat or maybe the Ganks had refilled the place with snakes. " Jax says with a shrug. It takes a bit of the walk before they find themselves down in a chamber with a waterfall of clean water that empties to the pool. Before them is the twin to one of the stone structures Aryn had said their mates were scattered across the galaxy. Jax frowns, "The notes says something about attuning yourself with the monument here will restore it across the galaxy. Anyone got a clue how to attune oneself with a statue?"

[ Zandra naMuriel (Zan) | 22:56:56 ]

Zan looks at Jax, and then she nods. "Meditate in front of it," is her soft reply. "At least that's what we did before?" It was different monuments, true, but it's the only thing she can think of. "Or I think receptive telepathy was used." She moves to just by the large stone, taking a couple breaths and working to empty her mind, to concentrate on meditating as she works to attune herself to the statue.

[ Chani Tahn (Chani) | 22:59:38 ]

"We've seen similar Force monuments before. There were some on Tython. To commune with them, we meditated. I'm not sure if these are the same kind of monuments, though." Chani offers what she recalls of past situations while Zandra begins to work through her breathing to try meditating. Chani does not for the simple sake of wanting to keep her attention elsewhere in case whatever Zandra attempts somehow makes something go... wrong. It's difficult to tell what will happen with old puzzles left behind and meant to have hoops to jump through. Any number of them could be contained within traps. Like the snakes, for example. "I think that's what the others did, too. I wish I'd paid more attention to the reports." Chani promises to herself she'll be more attentive in the future.

[ Jax Greystorm (Jax) | 23:06:29 ]

Zandra's meditation comes with the satisfying feeling of completion. It's impossible to see or hear a difference. Just all three know the task is complete. Jax smiles. "That should do it. Alright, Lets get out of here. We got reports to write and for others not to pay attention too. I need to get you guys back to Chandrila and get my ship repaired." With that they set off for what comes next.