Log:Jedi Order: Island of Death Part III
The finale of the mission to the prison isle.
OOC Date: May 24, 2021
Location: Pamarthe
Participants: Ahsoka Tano, Qutha Buvu Pah, Yuun, Aryn Cortess
The trip through the Misty Veil was not anymore eventful than it had been, though arriving at the abandoned prison isle proved more ominous than perhaps seeing the veil for the first time. The prison isle consisted of a massive onyx structure chiseled from a volcano's obsidian rock, marked with dragon gargoyles and a protective wall whose intent was to hold back the sea and weather; an attempt that had long since failed given the state of the crumbling estate.
Beyond the walls sit a dormant castle, with a single high peak and sporadic structures carved of the same dull black rock. The castle, unlike the lower grounds and port, sat upon an embankment that, at one time, allowed it to sit above the sea. Now? It was partially submerged with only the higher levels kept safe. The grounds, the castle, and the battlements were laced with steaming fog, making it difficult to see beyond the estate and into the sea; truly a prison of the mind and soul.
Settling at the port, the team could disembark the skiff and step into the knee-height water. A path of mossy obsidian stone led up a remarkably preserved stairset and toward the castle and old security checkpoints. Where one might have expected this place to feel of life, it only felt empty. Aryn froze when looking upon the view, shuddering at the thought of being imprisoned here. "Death might have been a more welcomed alternative to life here in the mists. I cannot imagine an exercise more maddening then looking out the window and seeing only mists and nothing more."
Ahsoka navigates the mists to the single berth with relative ease now that the sea beasts, pulling them along the pier to disembark. She leads the way with her cloak removed, as the water soaked cloth was becoming more of a hinderance than protective against the near constant spray of saltwater from the sea. "You're not wrong." She says to Aryn, nodding grim as she casts blue gaze around the crumbling external walls.
"I've kept my distance from the prison myself. Watching from one of the other isles for anyone lucky or foolish enough to stumble upon it.. but what you seek is here." Which could add a bit of ill omen to the already bleek situation. She cracks a light stick and holds it up as they move further up the suprisingly preserved obsedian steps.
"Seeing nothing at all would be worse. You can see shapes in the mist." Qutha notes solemnly as he finds his way to more sturdy ground, "But then... if those who were kept here were truly beyond redemption, horrid as that idea is, do they deserve a view?" wiping his face out of habit, but with such constant clinging mist he's only moving moisture around.
"If my understanding from some of the reading and the listening done... if something important in the force was here, it may lend to the force wanting it to remain further hidden." sniffing and slicking his hair back. "Lock the door and chain it, someone will want to break in to see. Leave the door open and people will stroll in."
A small grunt as he kneels and begins taking samples of the moss to slip into a vial with a bit of soil, "Make the place feel as if coming here will be your end, no matter how brave or foolish - and it will become myth and sought out only at the edge of need."
Once they are to the knee high water, Yuun steps off the skiff and walks up to the shore. He looks around for a moment and he even shivers a little bit at this, "I agree." he says as he looks between Aryn and Ahsoka. He looks to Qutha for a moment, "Being able to see something if better then this Qutha." Yuun says to Quatha. "Regardless of how bad someone is, giving them just that small bit of kindness could potentially help. Now I'm not nieve as to think that will change someone, but for some, you don't know." he says with a shrug.
Yuun turns to face the structure, taking it all in, he allows himself to feel everything around him, "Well if it is hidden, we need to find it. Though we better be on our toes and watch each others back as we travel through here."
"Right, so.." Aryn pulls out her datapad and projects a holo image of Kyle's notes. "Mr. Katarn spoke of this.. monument being within a courtyard. In his notes, he speculated that this prison was used to hide many of the galaxy's most dangerous criminals, and a team of Jedi sentinels saw to the defenses. Their means of.. communing was tied to this Seeing stone.." Aryn walked with the group taking the stairs. They eventually got out of the water and through the first check point.
Unfortunately, after the checkpoint, the path led back down. The courtyard they were searching for was part of the main prison grounds but cut off from the population and used by staff. Perhaps, at one point, the grounds was beautiful, but all the team finds is a stretch of murky water at knee-height depth.
Walls were in every direction save one, which afforded a view of the port below and the mists beyond. Had there been some breeze, it might have been comfortable (except for standing in water), but they weren't even given that luxury. It was muggy, hot, humid, and every adjective that might describe discomfort in moist heat there was. At the center of the courtyard was a single pedestal. There were no pieces of the monument in view, which was problematic.
"Odd, this is where the monument is thusly built, but I find no pieces with which to construct it. I hope a high tide has not swept them away.."
Aryn steps closer to the pedestal to look around, puzzled by the odd calm, the lack of monument pieces, and the looming task they had to find this 'key' Katarn had annotated.
Ahsoka listened keenly to the notes Aryn was speaking and looked around the open area herself with a solumn nod of understanding... and agreement regarding the unfortunate nature of what await them if the tide has washed it out to the bottom of the sea. Her dark lips press into a thin line across her face, regarding the trio of Jedi she's guiding with a raised brow. "It might be that such a monument requires reaching out through the Force to find. If it was guarded by Jedi, likely the would have gone to great lengths to hide it from prying eyes. Especially before this location was partially submerged."
Flushed green with the heat, Qutha turns a slow circle as they find the courtyard, emerald eyes sweeping across the prison and then to where Aryn has declared the oddity. "Maybe we need to clear away the water first? Or maybe we lack something the old guardians had?" gaze to the prison proper again, "Some representation of the keepers of the monument?"
Eyes closing, trying to concentrate and attune himself, though his efforts seem to wend their way into reminding him of how water logged he's becoming. Distracted and struggling to find his center with a heavy sigh. "I agree with Miss Ahsoka... there has to be something tied through the force here, but we're not 'seeing' it... so to speak."
Yuun goes quiet as they walked through the prison, looking around as they moved up stairs back down. He took in the information that is being provided to them. Yuun didn't like knowing anything so anytime he can learn he generally keeps quiet. As they are told about the seeing stones being used as a way to commune is tied to the stones, makes finding them even more important.
Looking at the monument, Yuun doesn't see the pieces they need, and it's at this point he allows the force to flow through him. He could feel the pieces below them, but also something else. "Move slowly out of this water now." he says in a calm voice. With saying that, he begins moving back slowly, trying not to disturb the water too much. "Calmly and slowly try not to disturb the water too much." he says as he starts moving to any dry spot he can see.
It was too late for Aryn to back out, she was already trying to climb up on the pedestal. She does not make it. The surface of the water near it began to part as something sped toward her, and a long, tentacle arm took hold of her leg. She made a pitiful noise of surprise before being tugged backward and into the water, submerged before she could get another sound out.
It's not immediately clear that Aryn is fighting for her life underwater, but the churning indicates that she is moving around quickly. A single eye stalk appears from beneath the surface, angling toward the remaining Jedi, blinking, then dips back below. A low hum ripples the water around the entire monument, vibrating the very stones of the embankment, and causing a stir. Before they can begin to get close though, the pieces Yuun had felt through the Force rise up from the surface of the water and begin to spiral around the monument at very fast speed. All of the pieces were there, but they had to piece them together!!
Ahsoka reaches out in a feeble attempt to help Aryn, but the tentacle has pulled her away long before she would ever have been able to offer much assistance. Her expression becomes a line, her face a mask, "Solve the puzzle." She murmurs and dives off the shallower end of the water into the deep! Where she will no doubt die and never be heard from again:
This is the way
The warning going out has the Zelosian's head up and eyes widening when he makes to try and feel or see what Yuun detects. Steps carrying him backward now at a pace intend to carry him carefully, but none to slowly towards safety. Relative as such a term as that may be here at this very moment. Certainly not truly dry ground either.
Then tentacles and Aryn sinking into the water before the eye stalk comes out... and the force begins doing as it wishes with the stones lifting free of the wet, "Oh bother..." intent to retreat halted and Qutha's hand calls the stunsaber to his palm. It's not much, and he's still learning - but he can make an effort none the less.
"Flight has been taken from our options, Yuun. She's buying us time." the hilt of his weapon still disengaged, clasped between both hands as he concentrates on the swirling pieces, willing another down to slot into place with careful envisioning, seeing the shapes and where they might find their resting point.
Yuun sees the splash as Aryn is taken down under the water and Ahsoka tells them to solve the puzzle. Yuun isn't indecieve but a sigh escapes him as he wasn't able to warn his friends fast enough. Still he quickly pushes that emotion aside, they had work to do and Quatha was right, "I'm on it." he says as he quickly turns and looks to see the pieces that were buried now above the ground. "I got these!" he calls as he reaches out through the force. His hand grips ahold three of the pieces and begins moving them in place.
Aryn surfaces a moment, tossing her head back and choking, then sucking in air unable to fight the strength of the cephalopod tugging her back in. Whether she had any idea of her surroundings, or was lost to the fear of drowning, remained to be seen.
Since those long moments of initially being pulled under, the team of Jedi had begun to place the monument pieces into place by yanking them free from the force that controlled them to set them on the pedestal. Each piece that was added made the spiral speed up and mist began to stir up like the pieces were generating some sort of rotor propulsion.
Ahsoka pops back out of the water and reaches out through the force to yank pieces of the puzzle from the depths of the tornado, while keeping an eye on Aryn with a frown. "We need to help her..." She really doesn't like the idea of leaving her to deal with that beast while they're fiddling around, but they DO have to solve the puzzle to get out of here.
"Get to her, Miss Ahsoka, we can handle this." Qutha's eyes remain closed and his breathing levels out until he is allowing himself to stand as a conduit rather than a wielder for the force. The Jedha monks really had something in their mantras, and little Bizz seemed to have good advice for all of his eccentricities.
"We are one with the force, Yuun. And the force is with us." it was a good centering chant, wiping away distraction. One hand raising with fingers splayed toward the puzzle pieces steadily being drawn into place. "It could be the creature is the test. To challenge our focus. But if we are steadfast we will find our victory on both fronts." voice calm but projecting in the chaos, finding his little niche again.
It's taking his focus to slow the pieces and moving them into position, still he watches where each piece needs to go in the correct places. He hears the gasp from Aryn, he wants to go after her like the others. Though he has to focus on the here and now, and as he exerts himself through the force, he begins moving the pieces into place. Making sure the pieces he's holding isn't out of place and in the correct order. "I hear you, now focus." he says to Quatha as he places down the final pieces in the correct order.
The final piece was set, and the very ground began to shake. When a moment of stunning clarity struck each member of the team, their perception through the Force became apparent, and they simply knew the will of the Force at that moment in time. Their focus honed inward, toward the monument that began to spin and lift up revealing the spherical seeing stone, and all at once the runes upon it lit up.
Steam spiraled around the manifestation of the Force as it shot skyward, and for those brief moments, they traveled through space and time arriving back at Ruusan where the final key was set in place. A sudden thunderous sound followed and the seeing stone lowered back down, and a ripple cascaded outward causing a trembling wave that prompted Aryn's release from the Dianoga.
She emerged from the water, sputtering and stumbling, pale as a ghost and running for the staircase they had taken to reach the courtyard to begin with. The mission was complete. Aryn made it to the stairs, and toppled over to cough up water. It seemed the Dianoga had taken a souvenir; Aryn was missing her boot!
"I apologize.. my contribution to this mission.." Cough-cough-cough, "..was less than.." COUGH. "..satis.." COUGH! "..factory." Aryn managed, cheeks red and stringy blonde hair clinging to her scarred cheek.
Watching the conflagration of force energies until he hears Aryn spluttering, Qutha turned to follow the Alderaanian princess - picking up speed to get in close enough to make sure to be on hand should she require one.
"You had a very specific sort of distraction that you had to contend with, my friend. You shouldn't apologize, and I'm glad that it turned out for the better in either regard." offering a hand up to bring Aryn to her feet when she's ready while looking to the stone that has been risen. "And we've -all- still succeeded. Don't forget that." gaze on Yuun and Ahsoka in turn. A small nod given to each, "Direction and an ally we did not know we had brought to the fore."
There is a scant shift in time before the inspiration takes him and Qutha asks aloud of the Togruta, "Will you return to us, Miss Ahsoka? The Galaxy needs more like you walking in it and not standing to one side of it. It will be a darker place if you choose to remain here mired in myth and mist." head tilting, brow up a little higher.
Watching what happened, as it happened, Yuun had a clear view of what they were being shown. Shaking his head and grasping an understanding, "It's that planet again." he says as he sees that they will need to go to Ruusan. With his vision cleared the only way the Force can do it, he likes this feeling. Yuun gasps a little at what he is feeling and seeing.
Being brought back to himself by Aryn and Quatha, "Sorry." he apologizes. "I wanted to help you Aryn, but all my concentration was caught up with the stone pieces." he says to her. He looks to Quatha, "I don't think she was the distraction, the Dianoga attacked before i was able to warn you all quick enough." he says simply. Yuun then looks to Ahsoka as Quatha asks if she is coming back with them. "We would be honored to have you come back with us." he says to her.
