Log:Traces of the Past
Traces of the past
OOC Date: July 3, 2022
Location: Tatooine
Participants: Pilha Aino (GM), Aurora, Kalys
Aurora didn't require offers of money to do some exploring, so hearing someone had found some unknown patterns on a canyon wall had piqued her curiosity. So she had rented a dewback and was arriving at the designated meeting place plenty early enough, the sun just starting to raise when she found a rock to tie the stubborn animal to so it wouldn't run off on her while she was exploring. It was one of the few occasions she was wearing some armor too, just incase. It was a pretty basic suit of Cinnagar armor she had gotten on the cheap she wore over her regular clothes. A pair of pistols were holstered at her sides, both Theed Arms S-5's. Merrie's Moisture farm is one of the most remote. Nestled far into the scorched hinterlands of Tatooine. Merrie's hired hand, Pilha, has found some odd marks on a boulder at the entrance to a rocky canyon on the edge of Merrie's lands. She puts the word out to archaeologists, explorers and other moisture farmers. Come help us figure out what these are. No money offered just... food.
The canyon is fairly narrow and tall, barely 3 metres across and some 10 metres tall. However, it directs a decent amount of wind-flow so the enterprising moisture farmers have set up a line of 4 vaporators down the middle on its andy floor. The canyon is hewn from sun-gold sandstone, but here and there strata the colour of cream and rose gold weave through it. The walls are craggy, pock-marked with crevices and small caves. At the entrance lies a boulder that fell from the canyon wall eons ago. Faint patterns have been carved. Swirls and straight lines.
The adventurers have been asked to assemble just before dawn. The sky is dark, just a hint of dawn to the east. The desert is hushed apart from a sighing breeze that emanates from the canyon like it is breathing softly.
Pilha stands against her beat-up speeder at the entrance to the canyon. She sips water from a bottle and waits for her companions to arrive. Under her Tatooine clothes, she has put on her armor.
Pilha watches as a figure emerges from the pre-dawn gloom. She takes a final sip, then screws the lid on her water bottle and shoves herself off the speeder she was leaning against. She holds the bottle lightly by the neck as she ambles over to Aurora. "Morning, you must be Aurora?" she says with an easygoing smile. She holds her hand out. Her skin is dry, knuckles scuffed and fingernails short and torn, the hand of someone used to manual work. She has a strange accent. Part Corellian, part Nar Shaddaa. "Glad you could make it. Did you bring water?"
Kalys sped up a few moments later, that almost silent approach a given given the rebel speeder she rides. The baffled bike certainly ensuring a swift and stealthy arrival, even if Kalys herself is anything but as she draws up, comes to a halt and gives a wave to those so gathered at this farm. A familiar farm at that as Kalys glances about over Ol' Merrie's place. Slipping from the bike and readjusting her krayt blood coloured garb over her armour, Kalys pats her holstered and almost hidden sidearm as she nods to Pilha and Aurora, and gives a glance to the dewback. "sat." That greeting offered as she turns to sling a few canteens from the bike about a shoulder. "zekiga! if yhasu oomapijyf ghevaethie... oomapijyf... py. tearh oge gho. awooty mar. fethijad. oomapijyf aewofevood ma eavi ghiethivoow tearh awofiku aegh uhefevus kooph. farhiva lae oodimoo? waeheg femamu rhaefer naeth, ef ootooz yrieg aafiehafas ehaam." Water canteens offered, though shouldered for the moment. [Language: Jawa_Trade]
Kalys sped up a few moments later, that almost silent approach a given given the rebel speeder she rides. The baffled bike certainly ensuring a swift and stealthy arrival, even if Kalys herself is anything but as she draws up, comes to a halt and gives a wave to those so gathered at this farm. A familiar farm at that as Kalys glances about over Ol' Merrie's place. Slipping from the bike and readjusting her krayt blood coloured garb over her armour, Kalys pats her holstered and almost hidden sidearm as she nods to Pilha and Aurora, and gives a glance to the dewback. "Hey." That greeting offered as she turns to sling a few canteens from the bike about a shoulder. "Pilha! And hey you too... yeah... sandboarding. I ate sand. You glided. Well. You both glid more than I did that's for sure. So what's up? Stuff seen out there, always fun stuff at Merrie's." Water canteens offered, though shouldered for the moment.
Aurora gives a wave to Pilha, shaking her hand when it's offered. "That's right, Aurora Twinmoon! You ran that sandboarding competition right?" When asked if she brought water she unslings a pack and holds it open, showing some basic supplies along with a handheld translation droid. "Yep! Got some water and travel rations! Was reading a guide on the holonet for what I should bring but I couldn't find any ten foot laser poles, the shop owners just gave me funny looks anytime I asked..." She shrugs it off and waves to Kalys as another fellow sandboarder shows up. "I think all three of us ended up eating sand," she notes with a snicker. Pilha shakes Aurora's hand. "Yeah, there was two distinct tiers of competitors that night..." she muses. She brings her hand up, chopping the air high level with her eyes, then moves it down to repeat her gesture at her waist. "No offence," she says with a wink.
As Pilha is greeted by Kalys, she turns and greets her friends. "Hey, Kalys!" She says with a grin. "Good to see you again. Vaporators behavin' themselves?" She declines the offered water and then ambles over to the rock with the carvings. "Well, this is it. No idea what they mean or anything." She gestures at them. "Sure are pretty, though, I guess."
"We'd have been fine if we wore more neon and lights." Kalys offers, a smirk lightly etched across her features as she sets down the canteens, and gives her shoulder a lazy roll and a squeeze with her opposing hand. "Yeah, so far, got a good forty percent operational, things are looking up." Sure that's still sixty percent giving up to rust, dust, and the usual factors. "Getting there, it's a daily battle right?" To Aurora, Kalys smiles and introduces herself. "Kalys Remshi, I own the farm on the outskirts of Mos Eisley... like Pilha here, you're always welcome to drop by, and there's always water." That said, the markings do attract the fellow farmer's attention. "They sure are... any ideas?" Kalys asks of both Aurora and Pilha, eyes squinting at the rock art. Her brain ticking over lightly in an effort to ponder such things.
Aurora lets out a sheepish chuckle and rubs the back of her neck. "Yeah, the other two there were, uh, way better... oh well. Was still fun." She blinks at the exchange between Pilha and Kalys when Pilha asks the other woman about vaporators and Kalys then confirms her profession to Aurora. "Ohh, you're a moisture farmer? Do you, like, get raided by tuskens and jawas and bandits a lot?" She apparently had a strange idea of what moisture farming life was like. Turning her attention to the carvings on the rock she folds her arms and rubs her chin as she looks them over. "Maybe they mark the entrance to some ancient trap-filled tomb?" she suggests, then looks around as if scanning for a hidden entrance.
Pilha glances at Aurora. "Maybe, here's hoping it's full of... important cultural artifacts. Pilha looks up, around, craning her neck to scan up the craggy entrance to the shadowy canyon. But. Nope. Nothing. She sighs and shoves her hands in her pockets. She begins to move into the canyon, looking for further evidence.
"More than I should be, though I am a good few kilometres from Mos Eisley, close enough in some regards, too far away in others. I've disposed of a few bandits... with help. The sands have them now." Kalys replies with something of a slightly too pleased grin. "Though not Tuskens or Jawa, just greedy rodians and other unsavoury sorts. Though the jawa do drop by to sell me scrap, so alls good there." Kalys offers as she moves to get a better look. "It's a hard life, but a good one, I mean... I'll never explore the galaxy like you folks. So I'm envious of you both there." A few moments of silence. Some furrowing of brow. And Kalys speaks once more. "You know what, on the grapevine my fellow farmers have occasionally reported seeing these markings out in the more remote and rocky areas, well, so some folks have said, first time I've seen them to be honest. I think they're Tusken? They apparently mark sources of water, so kind of one of those things that farmers or those staking a claim in rocky areas will find more often than not. Not that water has ever been found by one so I hear."
"Moisture farming sounds tough," Aurora notes with a thoughtful nod. Her focus remains on that rock though, staring at the carvings on it intently as if hoping by staring at them they'd unveil some hidden meaning. Or at least, some cardinal directions pointing to something interesting. She lets out a hum when Kalys suggests the markings might denote a water source. "So... there might be an underground water source or something?" she asks, glancing back at Kalys. "Water's really valuable around here... but if they do mark where water's found then someone probably would have already tried digging for it near a spot they found these markings, right?"
Pilha leaves the other pair quietly talking and swapping theories. She pads down the left side of the canyon, tracing her hand over the rough sunrise-coloured rocks as she does so. Her footsteps are almost noiseless on the soft yellow sand that covers the floor. The soft desert breeze stirs her hair softly. Soon enough, she comes across more markings. They look similar to the markings are the entrance, but bigger. Pilha stands in shocked silence, then turns to the others. "Hey! Hey! Guys! I've found more carvings."
"Oh it can be, well it is!" Kalys exclaims proudly. "But hey, no more so than what people get up to out there. Just more sand. And dehydration than most folks." With that said, Kalys uncorks a canteen and takes a deep swig of the rich water within. "You'd think so, but perhaps the Tusken have their own means of finding the water that we don't understand, I mean, it's possible, they've been here longer than us." With Pilha's shout however, Kalys glances over and makes her way towards those bigger markings. "Wow. Now those are markings." A nod given, though her understanding remains somewhat... handwavery to say the least. "Impressive..." Aurora follows Pilha's direction to find the second set of markings. "Huh..." She stares at them a moment, tilting her head slightly and folding her arms. "They seem to be... the same? But they're bigger..." She closes her eyes and one could almost hear the rusty gears turning in her head as she tries to figure things out. Opening them again, she glances back in the direction of the first set of carvings, then looks further down the canyon in the opposite direction. "Maybe that means we're getting closer? I think we should keep going in the same direction anyway."
Pilha glances at Aurora as the other joins her. She studies the carvings as Aurora speaks and nods. Then she reaches out and traces her left index finger along one of the curving lines in the rock.
Back towards the entrance, behind them all, a pair of beady black eyes emerge from the sandy floor. The hump of a brown-exoskeleton can briefly be seen before the eyes and exoskeleton vanish beneath the sand again.
Kalys folds her arms against her chest, eying those larger markings with a nod of appreciation. "You have to give it to them, they do know how to make beautiful markings... I think we're beyond being allies though, too much bad blood. Though I know there have been efforts." Stepping back a pace, Kalys takes in the markings as a whole, and then looks to both Aurora and Pilha. "Would be nice if we could get along, though I doubt anyone is shifting them from their fort any time soon, perhaps they'll settle down given a few generations." Kalys pauses. "Nah, everyone sucks. We love fighting too much. And land. And all the rest."
"Allies? You mean with the Tuskens?" Aurora asks, blinking in confusion. "Has anyone ever tried talking to them? Or does nobody understand their language or something?" She steps back a bit as Pilha examines the markings more closely. "Though, even if you could understand them, I bet they wouldn't tell us anything about these markings because then everyone would be finding their water. Or whatever." She shrugs lightly.
"I heard tell of one farmer... but it didn't work out. Other farmers didn't like it... but yeah." Kalys shrugs and pauses to readjust her Tatooine garb to ward off more of the sun as she shifts into the shade cast by the rock. "Still, it is what it is. We're always going to fight over water, truces are temporary and people suck. So yeah, there's no solving any of these problems any time soon, that's for sure." A smile briefly passes over her face as she looks between the two. "Just got to settle on those you know you can trust. Anything beyond that is too risky."
"Just Tatooine things I guess," Aurora replies with a small shrug. She reaches into her pack to pull out one of her water bottles to take a drink, but just as she's pulling it out a big, spider-like creature erupts from the sand jabbing a proboscis in the Zeltron's general direction. Aurora lets out a surprised shriek and staggers back. The creature's proboscis strikes the water bottle she was about to drink from, piercing it and spilling its contents. "Hey! We've got company!" she calls out to the other two as she draws her two pistols.
The sandswimmer's proboscis bounces harmlessly off Aurora's water bottle. The creature hisses and twists and dives under the sand. The sand ripples ominiously as it swings around behind Aurora, before rearing up and wrapping a winged leg around her left leg. The insect hisses and tries to jam its proboscis into her leg this time, but hits her armour plating and bounces harmlessly off.
Wait, what? Pilha, up ahead a little distance from the others, turns and stares at Aurora as she l. "WHAT THE FRAK IS THAT?" She yells. Honestly, no-one told her Tatooine could be so dangerous. Pilha unclips the slip of leather keeping her DL-30 in its holster and checks the charge quickly as she pulls it out. She aims at the sandswimmer and squeezes the trigger, firing off a quick shot, but it has dived beneath the surface of the sand but her shot goes wild, hitting the sand harmlessly to the left of Aurora and turning it to molten silica.
Kalys steps back and eyes the creature. "Oh for... it's a sandswimmer, poisonous lil' buggers! It's a baby though... so it won't carry you off and suck you dry of every last drop of moisture, at least not right away. It'll take its time. Unlike the adults." The farmer offers as she looks for a rock or something, and giving up on that idea, she moves to unholster her sidearm. Moving a few steps to the side and eying the thing, though not firing for the moment lest she hit either Pilha or Aurora. Spotting her chance, she lifts her weapon, and fires off a couple of shots. "We're safe on rocks, although that's where the Krayt Dragons tend to bask!" Yeah, Tatooine is fun! This was Aurora's first chance to try out her recently purchased pistols. She takes aim at the spider-like creature with both of them and fires off a quick pair of shots. Unfortunately, she fired just as it was diving again and the only thing she managed to hit was the sand where it went under. "Well, wouldn't be much of an adventure without a monster or two!" Aurora notes, grinning slightly. "That's not exactly comforting though, Kalys!" Taking heed of the girl's advice though she makes her way toward one of those carved rocks to potentially serve as cover.
The sandskimmer rolls and dives beneath the floor of the canyon, spraying sand everywhere. The sand ripples and rolls like boiling water as it turns and heads for Aurora again! Only to hit her boot this time! Pilha doesn't waste time talking, she silently jumps to the side of the canyon, taking advantage of a low ledge to get off the sandy floor. She's scowling with concentration as she turns and fires off a quick shot. This time it glances off one of the vaporators in the middle of the canyon, damaging its metal panelling. Pilha speaks this time, "Ah, poodoo, Merrie's going to /kill/ me."
"Merrie will have found a reason eventually." Kalys offers with something of a smirk as she too moves to try and find some rocky spot to lurch and perch upon. "Get up off the sand!" And Kalys aims towards the rippling sands, squinting as she fires off another couple of shots. And again she spills those shots into the sand! Yay for that fine aim. No wonder people joke about moisture farm militias. "Okay... I'm seeing now that shooting that Rodian might have been a fluke. But Rodians are bigger and slower and dumber. You okay?!" She calls out to both Pilha and Aurora.
Aurora jumps back as the sandswimmer erupts from the ground in front of her, its proboscis nicking one of her boots as it narrowly misses her again. She fires off another pair of shots from her pistols but the motion throws off her aim and she only manages to hit the sand behind and to the sides of the sandswimmer. "Hard to hit something that can keep diving in and out of the sand like this!" she gripes, but gives a wave of one of her pistols to Kalys. "I'm alright!" She starts moving toward rocky terrain now, hoping to deny it that advantage.
The sandswimmer, having exerted much energy for not much game and disturbed by the blaster fire reverberating through the sand, gives up and dives deeper. The sand boils and whirls in one spot like a whirlpool then stops moving. Perhaps there are some unwary jawas out on the Dune Sea to hunt. Tasty little juicy jawas... The sound of the blaster fire from the three explorers echoes round the canyon and fades. The sands are still. No rippling. No line of sand dug out as the sandswimmer makes its approach... The only sound is the moaning of the desert wind down the canyon.
Pilha, from her perch, swings the barrel of her blaster over the sand, watching for the sandswimmer to make a reappearance. Kalys briefly scans the now silent sands and steps down warily from her rock. "So that's another thing that can kill you, though I suppose you kinda... don't feel much of it?" She almost sounds hopeful as she pats a foot on the sands, stamps again, and then nods. Content. The sands are safe. "So yeah... that was a sandswimmer. And here endeth the lesson on moisture sucking monsters. Or moisture farmers as they are otherwise known." A little humour. Kalys smirks. Ahems softly. "So yeah. Nice markings." Aurora manages to make it off the sand and then turns and points both her pistols at it where she sees that whirlpool, waiting for the creature to surface again. When the sand settles and there's no further sight of the beast she holsters one of her pistols, keeping the other ready incase it decided to come back. "I think it's gone now?" she whispers hopefully, then looks back toward the other two to check up on them. "Everyone alright then?"
"I think so too," Pilha whispers back to Aurora. With a scrap of boots on rock, she jumps down from her perch and lands on the sand with a soft thud. "Yeah," she says to Aurora. "No injuries here, thankfully." The sky overhead is turning to the rosy pinks and pale blue-greens of dawn, and the air beginning to heat up. "We should press on.." Pilha murmurs as she heads further into the canyon.
Kalys nods at that and takes a swig from her canteen as she moves to press on alongside the others. "As deadly as the planet is though, I think it is safe to say it is the most beautiful..." Yeah. Sand. So much sand. More sand. Some rock. More sand. Gorgeous sand. And sand. "But then I've never really visited another planet, so I'm biased." "Um... to each their own I guess..." Aurora notes in response to Kalys, blinking in disbelief. She lets out a sigh and continues on behind Pilha, scanning her surroundings as they move. She was keeping any eye out for any further signs of that sandswimmer in particular, though she spots something else instead. "Hey, I think I see an opening over there..." she says to the others, pointing toward the entrance to a cavern near a crevice.
Pilha, spotting the crevice at the same time. She heads towards it, then pauses at the entrance. She looks back to Kalys and Aurora. "You know what," she says uncertainly. "I'm a city girl at heart. Maybe you guys should take the lead?"
Kalys grins and moves to settle on a rock in the shade by the entrance. "I'll wait here with some water, keep any eye out for anything swimming into the cave. Shoot the ground a few times and scare it off right?" That said, the moisture farmer wriggles into the shadow, ensconced within the shade and protected just so from the twin suns. "I'll watch your backs, give you the time you need to explore. Don't worry at all, you'll be fine..." That said, she leans down to fill up an empty canteen with sand and hand it off to Pilha. "Use it to mark your progress, little dumps of sand... kinda like a ball of twine."
Aurora blinks, looking between the two for a moment as Pilha suggests someone else go on ahead and Kalys deciding to stay outside in the shade. "Well, guess that just leaves me then!" Aurora says with a small grin before starting to move forward toward that cavern entrance. She was an explorer afterall, she wasn't going to just turn back now! Pilha lights her way with a glowstick then the two women trudge down the narrow passage, occasionally having to slip sideways to squeeze through narrow parts. The walls are smooth and undulating, different from the craggy canyon outside. Eventually, they reach a space where the narrow path opens up into a much wider space. Pilha waves her glowstick around, but it barely penetrates the darkness.
Aurora leads the way further into the cavern, the helmet of her S1 armor helping her see at least a little better with only Pilha's glowstick for illumination. Peering ahead, she catches sight of something glittering on the walls and moves closer to get a better look at them. "Someone's embedded figures in the wall. They look, uh, pretty alien... lots of limbs... look like they're swimming?" She glances back toward Pilha and shrugs, wondering if she has any insights, though adding, "That would kinda describe that thing we just fought off though, wouldn't it?"
Pilha moves closer, moving her glowstick over various figures. The figures look humanoid, not like a sandswimmer. Pilha frowns as her glowstick accidentally strobes too fast over a swimming figure. The figure ripples in a primative cartoon manner. "Moving," the dark-haired human murmurs. "They're moving." She suddenly laughs. "Swimming! They're swimming."
Aurora folds her arms, staring at the images a bit and nodding to Pilha in agreement. "I'm wondering if maybe those carvings were actually some kind of warning about that creature that attacked us, and maybe this cavern is its den... though if that's the case there might be more. Or it might come back!" She frowns and quickly looks around for any sign of more sandswimmers, keeping her pistol at the ready and starting to back toward the exit.
Pilha pauses, running the glowstick over the figures again. She then generally runs the glowstick's pool of light over the sparkling mica and crystals. Like eddies of water. The walls are smooth as if worn down over millenia. Pilha looks down and kicks the floor, kicking up soft sand. "Water," she murmurs. Then she turns to Aurora. "Water! Not where it is hidden now, Aurora, but where it was," she calls to the woman's receeding back.
Aurora stops in her tracks and looks back at Pilha, blinking. "Huh?" she asks. "You sure?" She moves back into the cavern a bit, looking around but not quite making the connections Pilha was. "So you're saying... this is somewhere that -used- to be a hidden reserve of water, but it's all empty now?"
Pilha nods excitedly then reaches out and touches the wall. "See how this figure has been repainted and repainted? It's like a shrine..." Pilha turns and smiles to Aurora. "It's beautiful, isn't it?" she says with a laugh. "A wonder - we should leave."
Aurora still seemed kinda confused, folding her arms and tilting her head a bit as she looked over the images again. "So they've painted these figures here a few times then? Hmm..." She considers Pilha's words for a moment and then shrugs. "Sounds kinda weird, but I guess this explains why no one ever found water when they found those carvings. It was already gone." She nods when the woman suggests they should leave and starts to make her way back out.
