Specters of a Sorcerer's Past: Below the Temple (Part 2)

Specters of a Sorcerer's Past: Below the Temple (Part 2)
Date of Scene:	19 May 2024
Location:
Synopsis:	The Jedi battle a Force echo of the Great Leveler.
Cast of Characters:	159, Cayde Alexis, 334, Annelia Belask

---

Athena (159) has posed:
"You're all certain then?" Gael's gaze wanders over to Cayde for a moment, noting his anxiousness.

Then she sighs, and glances over at Mal, nodding slightly. "Be careful, my sister," she whispers quietly, becoming slightly emotional. Mal nods, then in a puff of green smoke, vanishes completely.

Gael's gaze lingers in the spot where Mal had been a moment ago, brow knit together with concern, but makes no further comment, though the Jedi won't need to Force to be able to tell she's worried and scared.

Several minutes pass, and then Gael turns to the Jedi. "Any volunteers to be first?" she remarks a bit sarcastically.

Cayde Alexis has posed:
    Cayde notices Gael's awareness that he's anxious, and tries to scurry it away from her. And from everyone else. Surely, she was already worried enough about her sister...

    Everything would be just fine, as long as he stayed with the others. Well, as long as Ann would be with him...

Caius Astras (334) has posed:
"Yes. We've come this far. We can't turn our backs on a problem like this now that we've been alerted to it. It's not the Jedi way." confirms Caius.

To say he's unconcerned would be a lie but he's a Jedi Knight and that concern must be turned towards focus and direction not towards fear and anxiousness. Otherwise what's the point of it all?

"Let's go. Ann?" He looks ot his fellow Knight and then glances to Cayde noticing the Padawan shrinking away.

"It's fine Cayde, I don't think you should go in if you're not sure."

His hand reaches for his saber now though he doesn't ignite it as of yet.

Annelia Belask has posed:
    Patience is often called a virtue, especially for the Jedi...

    Shame its one Ann has in shorter and shorter supply as time goes on.

    There's not another word from the knight as she nods to Gael and strides forward to call her sarcasm and silently volunteer.

Athena (159) has posed:
Gael doesn't seem at all surprised when Ann silently volunteers herself to be first. She smirks slightly and offers the red haired Jedi a hand. "Shall we?"

If Ann takes her offered hand, she'll find herself rushed into a whirling tunnel of green and black. She'll feel as if she's traveling at light speed - but only for several seconds. As abruptly as the experience begins, it ends, and Ann will feel herself deposited in a dim tunnel whose appearance is mirage like and blurry...

Gael returns to where Cayde and Caius are, and approaches the remaining two Jedi, offering her hand to Cayde next.

Cayde Alexis has posed:
    Seeing Ann go, Cayde exhales audibly and takes the offered hand.

    Well here goes nothing...

Caius Astras (334) has posed:
Caius narrows his eyes slightly as Ann is taken through. He then glances to the side to Cayde as he waits for Cael to return.

"Take it easy Cayde. Remember your training and why you're a Jedi.." He waits and then looks to Cael as she returns and just falls silent again.

Annelia Belask has posed:
    Well, there's only one thing for Ann to do at this point- stand up, get her bearings a little- and lift her saber up above her head, returning it to its ignited state to continue acting as a light source in the dim tunnel.

Athena (159) has posed:
Gael disappears with Cayde, and the young padawan will experience the same thing Anne had - the strange tunnel, the feeling of going fast, and then being dropped into some kind of mirage like mindscape.

Then she'll return for Caius, this time, wrapping an arm around his waist. "Ready?" she says.

The dim tunnel ahead of Anne feels ... endless. And despite how bright her saber is, it doesn't seem to shed much light...

Caius Astras (334) has posed:
Caius recoils in surprise, dare we say, comerically, as Cael brazenly puts her arm around his waist as opposed to just a hand grab as she did with the others. In fact his outstretched hand is still hanging there in the air as she says 'ready'.

"Riiight." he finally voices, clearing his throat abit.

"In we go."

Cayde Alexis has posed:
    Cayde hurries to Ann's side upon arriving, lighting his saber too...but somehow, the light doesn't seem to illuminate much. He frowns, was this some sort of mindscape? Because if that was the case, perhaps he could manipulate it? The padawan attempts to remove whatever fog is preventing the light from penetrating.

Annelia Belask has posed:
    "Best of luck with having joined us, Cayde," notes Ann, shrugging a little as she squints to see into the haze and dark as best she gan.

    Only one thing for it apparently, as she hardly waits a second for Caius to get his bearing as he arrives before starting down the tunnel.

Athena (159) has posed:
Gael gives Caius a coquettish smile, and chuckles when he recoils. Then, he'll have the same somewhat disorienting feeling before being dropped into the fever dream like mirage.

When Cayde reaches out in an attempt to manipulate the mindscape, the darkness recedes slightly. He'll be able to faintly recognize that Mal's presence, somewhere in this murky mindscape. And yet, as they advance down the tunnel, there's a sudden chill.

Caius Astras (334) has posed:
Upon his arrival, Caius does the same . reaching out with the Force to feel what envelops them and to attempt to push back the darkness and bring forth The light.

As the chill advances upon them, he narrows his eyes there's a flash of blue-white fire as his lightsaber ignites to join in the glow already provided, such as it is, by Ann's own as he falls into step besides her.

"I think, if what happened outside of the wall, was any indication...that you're going to be our defensive anchor, Ann.."

There's a pause and then he says with a smirk, adding cheekily, "I hope you're better at Soresu then the last time I saw you?"

Cayde Alexis has posed:
    Oh...

    Cayde finds himself somewhat surprised that his attempts actually worked. Sort of. He tries again, pushing harder this time as he follows Ann. Her comments gets a look from him, though. He'd always been taught that luck didn't really exist, only the Force. However, he doesn't comment and instead just focuses on trying to push the fog away.

Annelia Belask has posed:
    "Soresu is for people who are interested in 'not losing' rather than interested in 'getting anything done'," says Ann dismissively, head shaking- ever the Form V proponent, her.

    "I'd rather take down the threats than stall them for the next twenty minutes," she adds after a moment.

    Still, the form quibbling aside, she -is- quite specifically moving into position at the fore of the group, saber still ignited- but down at her side, less for light and more for ease of bringing up to bear as need might be.

Athena (159) has posed:
Caius will feel nothing. Ahead of them in the Force feels.. murky.

Then there's a flicker. Very similar to that feeling Caius had had earlier, before they'd entered the catacombs, but this time brief. As if the Force itself for a very brief moment, had disappeared.

The light at the end of the dim tunnel suddenly goes black for a moment, and then a chilling breeze ruffles the three Jedi...

Cayde Alexis has posed:
    Cayde's grip on his saber tightens, and he stays behind Ann as there is an ominous flicker ahead...that doesn't bode well. He slows down, falling behind the others. Where was Mal, anyway?

Caius Astras (334) has posed:
"Ouch." says Caius towards Ann, "It seems you've made your mind up about that. I can't say I have much of a rebuttal considering..."

His voice trails off as his attenton focuses upon the tunnel once more.

Indeed, where was Mal, "We shouldn't linger. Let's do this, quickly. Where is Mal?" r
His steps quicken now. THe feeling of The Force flickering in and out like a candle caught in a dark breeze is something he can sense quite well. It shouldn't be possible. The Force is everywhere, isn't it? So--

"Let's hurry this up and be gone. There's no telling when that feeling might overwhelm us again> Mal? Where are you?"

His voice raises with a degree of rising urgency now and he turns tolook towards Cael, "Can you sense your sister?"

Annelia Belask has posed:
    Ann, for her part... doesn't seem bothered at all- hardly any tuning to the bad feeling of this place in her, despite being Jedi... somehow.

    "I'm being a -little- facetious, but not -much-," she says over her shoulder to Caius with a smirk after the response to her saber form comments.

Athena (159) has posed:
The witch's expression is distant, and she's lagged behind the others. ".... yes," she says faintly. "I must fall back to protect her, if she is compromised in any way, the mindscape will collapse and trap all of you within it." And then without further ado, she vanishes in a puff of green, blurry smoke.

Suddenly, Caius will sense that feeling of the Force flickering in and out grow more pronounced. He'll be able to feel that something is coming. Coming for him. And it is hungry.

Yet, he can't really pinpoint where it's coming from. He'll suddenly be struck by sudden urge to flee, and a crushing fear of something that he cannot see, or hear.

Cayde Alexis has posed:
    Cayde gulps as Gael takes off, informing them of the risk that they might just get trapped here...

    Ann seems unruffled however, so he just sticks to close to his master.

Caius Astras (334) has posed:
Well there goes their way out of they need it.

Caius frowns and turns to look down the darkened hallway once again..

Only to feel the assault of -something- attempt to invoke desperate fear and emptiness within him.

He griamces, body shaking as he reaches his free hand out to try and brace himself against the wall and to hold his ground.

"Ann. Cayde...something approaches." he says, voice quaking. "It's like The Force is being winked in and out of existence. Past our touch. A void trying to swallow it. This must be what THe Council wanted hidden. Whatever is down here it's...almost like a polar opposite of THe Force itself. It's no wonder something is sickening Jedha..!"

Annelia Belask has posed:
    An actual pause in her stride from Ann as she looks over her shoulder at Caius with eyebrow raised. "Well. That's not much like you. Must really be serious..." she muses aloud.

    "Wonder if we could take a claw or something as a little talisman for..." she mumbles more to herself, trailing off as she shakes her head and resumes her progress forward- still remaining at the lead, perhaps now more than ever given -that- reaction.

Athena (159) has posed:
The feeling increases. It's getting closer and closer, close enough for Ann and Cayde to sense its terrible presence as well. Ann likely won't feel more than hot pressure on the back of her head, but Cayde might start to feel that awful hollowness, and his limbs might go partially numb.

Caius, however, will likely be able to see a... thing approaching. It's hard to identify what it really is, because it's so dark, and seems to be constantly be shifting shape. Sometimes it looks like an unidentifiable monstrosity from only light knows where, sometimes it looks just looks like a dark, amorphous blob and sometimes...sometimes Caius might be able to see some twisted version of his brother's face lurking within its dark folds. The vision is chilling and Caius will have to use every drop of his willpower to not succumb to the terror, and fall to his knees.

Caius Astras (334) has posed:
"Yes." responds Caius, teeth gritting and sweat forming visibly on his face.

The fact he lacked any sort of quippy, biting response to Ann was probably a good tell as well.

He struggles, hand gripping his lightsaber tightly and then holding it aloft almost as if a beacon as he draws every ounce of his strength to both steal himself and to push back against the incoming horror with his own mental strength. Attempting to turn its assault away from him and back upon it and if possible provide clarity tot he mindscape for Ann and Cayde to see it as ...it would seem he's been the primary target.

"It's like the creatures Tomi was drawing. Not exactly but..it must be it. What...he was attempting to capture in his journal. It's been down here all along and it's trying to drive us mad!"

Us or 'me' since it seems to be that he's the only one bearing the initial brunt of this.

"Be careful!"

Annelia Belask has posed:
    Ann frowns, rubbing at the back of her head a moment with her free hand. She takes a moment to take a deep breath and exhale it slowly.

    "Well, I think I see what you're seeing at this point... let's not waste time then," she says, redoubling her pace as she seeks to turn this into -her- chasing -it- down.

Cayde Alexis has posed:
    At first, there is that horrible, hollow feeling that makes him almost feel faint...

    And then, there is a terrible dark monstrosity before him. That must be the thing that Tomi had been so paralyzed by in that vision. And he remembers that he'd had this idea, last time...if this was a creature of pure darkness, then darkness by its very definition had to be dispelled by light. And he recalls that earlier, he'd been able to manipulate the mindscape somewhat.

    So he holds his lightsaber in front of him, and starts attempting to do so again. This time, he tries creating another light source in the area. Brighter than even their lightsabers. As if the morning sun itself were rising and peeking into this dark cave somehow.

Athena (159) has posed:
Whatever the terrible thing is, it seems unhappy that its attack on Caius had not brought the Jedi to his knees. That feeling of crushing fear suddenly heightens, and abruptly, the sinister being changes shape, morphing into a serpentine monstrosity that charges Caius.

The ground quakes, and abruptly, the sounds of terrified civilians screaming can be heard coming from above as the ground beneath them crumbles away to reveal a gaping chasm. The ceiling starts to rain little pieces of stony debris down on the three Jedi, and somewhere in the distance, the sound of gunfire and exploding ordnance can be heard.

At the same time, Cayde's manipulation of the mindscape results in a blisteringly bright orb of light rising in the center of the now expanding cavern. The creature, however, does not seem harmed by it. Instead, it's still focusing on trying to incapacitate Caius.

Caius Astras (334) has posed:
The light show by Cayde wasn't a bad idea but this isn't about trying to bring hope to a landscape someone in fear was trapped in and thus Caius doesn't seem too surprised when the light doesn't take effect.

It does give him the barest bit of warning before the creature's new form slams into him and he goes tumbling to the side in a wild roll that ends when he manages to vault back up to his feet.

When the illusions of the battle ground begins to fire up Caius' re-ignites his saber and then continues the momentum of his movements to try and flank opposite of Ann and continue moving while at the same time arcing his blade around in a streak of blue-white light to try and deal the monster a telling blow in an opening Ataru flavored strike.

"The Battle of Jedha?" he asks, trying to not let the confusion of the conflict interfere with his attempt at driving the creature back.

Cayde Alexis has posed:
    Cayde frowns when the light doesn't seem to have an effect on the creature. Well, okay process of elimination. So it isn't pure darkness then. Even if the light doesn't harm it, it should at least reveal something useful...if not of darkness, then what is the creature made of?

    As Ann charges off with lightsaber in hand, he again tries to manipulate the mindscape, and cause the falling rocks to move toward the monster instead of them.

    Additionally, he tries to bring solid ground under them as the chasm forms and push it up higher, while dropping the portions under the monster down farther...

Annelia Belask has posed:
    Fancy force work, manipulating mindscapes... not so much Annelia's bag.

    Instead, she's quite straightforward- as the serpentine-seeming creature goes to race by her, she pivots on her heel, throwing her weight into raking her lightsaber into its underside as it passes by, going for Caius as it is.

Athena (159) has posed:
The wicked monstrosity drops lower as the three Jedi ascend, with Cayde manipulating the mindscape. Then Ann and Caius both deal its ever changing form two nasty blows with their lightsabers, and the cavern shudders again as the creature thrashes in pain. Ann and Caius might notice that slashing the creature seems to affect their lightsabers slightly, they'll feel the handle of their sabers vibrate violently as their blades swipe the strange monster.

The .. thing now compensates for the newly increasing gap and renews its attack by once again shifting shape into a thick writhing vine with thorns. Its sinuous branches extend forward, attempting to ensnare Caius in its spiky embrace. For whatever reason, for the time being, it seems hyperfocused on the young Jedi Knight...

Cayde Alexis has posed:
    Cayde frowns pensively, watching as the monster changes shape. A shape shifter, huh. Well, if that's the game--

    This time, as the now plant-form monster tries to climb the mindscape cliff up toward them, the padawan tries setting it ablaze with fire.

Caius Astras (334) has posed:
Caius grits his teeth as the thorny vines whip about an outstretched arm, tearingo his robes and into flesh. He likewise felt the shuddering pain of his saber as well. Perhaps the Kyber Crystal at its heart was reacting to the creatures very touch. Given everything else he's sensing about it...it wouldn't be out of the question.
5rAs the flames billow up, Caius brings his saber around with his free hand, seeking to sever the outstretched vines with a quick swipe to let him pull back and away from it. He's clearly seeing it's focused on him though he's unsure as to why ..but with this happening ...he might as well continue tot ake advantage of it.

As the Cayde summons the flames, he turns his own attention towards the mindscape itself and reaches out with the Force to attempt to seize control over the landscape and send the rubble and ruin in the vision of the battle raging on around them, hurtling at the creature to try and crush it and force it back.

Annelia Belask has posed:
    Ann, almost seeming... incensed? By the lack of focus on her? Whirls about as the creature takes hold of Caius, and quite literally leaps to his defense.

    Aiming to land on the creature's back for at least a scant moment, she rakes her saber powerfully along its flank along the way.

Athena (159) has posed:
When Cayde summons flames, the vines thrash again, the burned ones breaking off and falling down into the chasm below.

The rubble Caius summons tumbles onto the creature, but it seems to do little to no harm to it. And the vines wrapped around Caius still keep the Jedi Knight captive. Slowly, Caius will start feel that chill settle in his bones again. That terrible, crushing fear that makes all else seem to go away, even the Force. It's the worst feeling Caius will have ever felt in his entire life. As if his very life force is being drained away, and replaced with fear, so much fear...

And the suddenly, Anne has leaped upon the creature's back and severed three or four of the thickest vines attached to the torso of the horrible, unnamed thing. Abruptly, it drops Caius, and changes shape again, becoming an undulating, black, oily mass that slowly begins to approach the red headed Jedi.

Caius Astras (334) has posed:
"Cayde...!" Caius is on the ground, stunned and trying to pull himself back to his feet. He's shaking, trembling at the draining of his very life force and very essence. But he's nto down or done yet.

"Work with me! Contain it!"

He turns, reaching out with the force again to try and seize hold of the mindscape, attempting to form a cage of astral essence around the creature as it advances on Anne, to hold it and trap it in place and keep it from moving closer towards her.

"Don't let it touch you! It's almost like it's feeding off us!"

Cayde Alexis has posed:
    An oily mass, well...what do you know? Yet another thing vulnerable to fire. Cayde focuses on trying to bring the flames that had scorched the previous form over toward the writhing monster with the aim of burning it away. Hopefully this is made even easier when Caius traps it in some sort of astral prison.

Annelia Belask has posed:
    And Ann, for her part... well, she's about doing one thing well. So when the creature becomes an oily mass, for a moment she's not quite sure how to approach attacking it with... a saber.

    Then as it begins to be encircled in the force and burned, she takes the moment's stop to set her feet, be at the proper distance... and swing her saber in a wide arc, whirling through the mindscape-flames to stoke and swirl them across the oil as she rakes the energy blade through the oil.

Athena (159) has posed:
The oily mass flickers into a variety of different forms, none of which it selects for long enough to even be remotely recognizable. It lunges against the astral cage Caius has created, but is unsuccessful in freeing itself. And then suddenly, there are more flames, courtesy of the young padawan. It writhes again, narrowly avoiding Anne's saber toss as it cringes away from the fire. However, its attention remains on Anne. And then Anne will start to feel that pressure headache on the back of her skull start to throb horribly. Suddenly, it becomes extremely difficult to focus on anything...

Annelia Belask has posed:
    A grunt and a groan from Ann as the sensation builds- truth be told, the pain doesn't bother her all that much. That much, she's used to.

    But the damage to her concentration- that's new. That throws her- and she staggers a half-step back.

    Still, she's few things if not stubborn, and steps back forward- not as tightly controlled or hewn so close to proper form as she might normally be, but she does continue to ply her lightsaber skills- two hands on the hilt as she swings great swipes of it from above her head in something akin to the power-swings of her favoured form... but perhaps not the best she's ever done.

Cayde Alexis has posed:
    Well it doesn't seem to be very smart, does it? But regardless, the fire seems to be hurting it, so Cayde frowns as he focuses on putting even more of his effort toward intensifying the flames while at the same time directing all of their fury toward the monster and away from Ann and Caius.

    Hopefully, this will allow them to stay within lightsaber range without even feeling the slightest bit hot...

Athena (159) has posed:
The strange black mass that is now the monstrosity writhes and wiggles again, somehow managing to avoid being struck the flames that Cayde is summoning. But that also means it has little to no room to maneuver to avoid being struck when Anne leaps up and starts power swinging. The red headed Jedi cleaves off two sections of the oily blob, just seconds before it explodes into a shower of ashy grey and black flakes.

Then the mindscape starts to crumble. The blurry mirage of rocks around them begin to dissolve and be replaced by the crisp but worn rocks of the real catacombs. Caius may or may not notice that his hands had turned a strange chalky color, but now that chalkiness is quickly disappearing. Anne, likewise, had had a thin streak of silver in her hair - but now that the mindscape is caving in on itself, the lightened strand of hair is quickly turning red once more. From somewhere deeper within, a familiar voice cries out. "It's over...it's gone! Is everyone alright?"

Moments later, Mal and Gael appear in a puff of green smoke. They look tired, but otherwise just fine.

Gael approaches Caius quickly, reaching out to squeeze his arm affectionately, though her brows are knitted together with concern. "Caius...how are you feeling?"

Caius Astras (334) has posed:
The alarm on Caius' face is clear though he seems more settled down now that it's over. He looks over his hands and then is startled as Cael embraces him. He permits it and then rests a hand on her shoulder to assure her that all is well.

At least for the moment.

"Let's get out of here. Quickly. We can't risk anything else like that being down here. I have a feeling there's more and that the thing we just saw might not even be truly destroyed. Let's go and then we can talk..."

He looks Ann over, seeing the strand of silver as it begins to recede back to her normal colors and he looks over to check Cayde over being nodding to Cael, "Let's go."

Annelia Belask has posed:
    Ann groans and grumbles quietly for a moment, turning off her saber as she pats off her robes and generally tends to herself in some vague effort to stave off her well-developed headache now that she doesn't have a fight to focus on.

    "Piece of..." she begins before going quiet again, spinning the hilt of her saber in her hand absently as she takes stock of the rest of the group.

    "Well. That didn't exactly dispel the idea that this -should not have been left down here-..." she finally manages to grumble out. "But yes- let's go for now."

Cayde Alexis has posed:
    Cayde heaves a sigh of relief when the monster finally dissipates. But is it truly gone? What if there were more? Well, Gael seemed certain that it was gone--at least, for now. He nods when Caius is eager to get out of here. Although he can't help feeling that for all of the warnings they'd received, that actually hadn't been as bad as he'd thought. In fact, he can't help but feel a bit of pride seeping in at having triumphed over a threat even the Council had deemed "too dangerous" to so much as attempt to deal with.

    Speaking of which, at least if the Council is upset that they ventured here without permission, they have a pretty good counter argument that the problem was now dealt with. At least for the time being, as far as they can tell.

    He frowns, noticing the white streaks in Ann's hair receding and the paleness on Caius' hands as they fade. The padawan looks down at himself, searching for any similar phenomena.

Athena (159) has posed:
Cayde seems to be just fine - no chalky traces on his body or clothing.

Gael nods, intertwining her fingers with Caius' tightly before looking up at him, her expression soft. "Thank you," she says quietly.

"Will you take the boy and his master?" she says to her sister, Mal. "I'll see you back at home, soon." And then with a green puff of smoke, both her and Caius are gone.

Mal nods at Anne, just before she turns to Cayde, all bright eyed and smiling. She then hugs the young padawan tightly. < I'm so glad you're okay. But Caius and your Master are right. We shouldn't stay here any longer than necessary.> Then, seconds later, she's whisked Cayde away back to the upper parts of the Temple of the Kyber, returning moments later to do the same for Anne.

Cayde Alexis has posed:
    As Mal suddenly hugs him and then whisks him away back to the temple, Cayde flushes bright red. And he's still red when they arrive there. However, he finally pats her gently on the back before withdrawing quickly and hurrying away, his face burning for some unknown reason.