OOM: A Map to the Future

[last_kallig]

(OOC: Some lines taken from canon. Possible trigger warning for an NPC eating people.)

Overseer Harkun's face betrays him for a moment when Ibani walked into his office entirely unharmed and not even disheveled. So, he HAD made that bargain with the twins. Ibani wishes that she could be surprised at that.

His face quickly twists into a sneer. "Well, well. Look who showed up at long last. I half expected to hear you'd crossed some Dark Lord upstairs and finally got yourself killed."

Ibani smiles politely. "I didn't run into anything I couldn't handle, Overseer." Acknowledgment that she knows what he tried to pull and a barb at the ineffectiveness of his "help".

Harkun's sneer twists further with cruel humor. "Your final trial will be to retrieve an ancient map from the innermost chamber of Naga Sadow's tomb - which has never been breached in thousands of years. But before you get the map, you'll have to awaken an ancient assassin called a Dashade that sleeps in the tomb. You cannot access the map without him, understand?"

A DASHADE?! Oh, KRIFF . Strong, incredibly resistant to Force abilities and with an insatiable appetite for the flesh of Force Sensitives, there are few worse one on one matches for an Acolyte in the galaxy. Ibani only knows about the mostly lost race because she's dug through some very obscure archives, and none of THOSE were at all helpful on explaining how the ancient Sith bound the Dashade to service. To cover her distress, she snarks at Harkun. "Yes, yes, yes....you send me into a tomb to do the impossible, hoping I die, and I come back and prove you wrong. You're becoming predictable, Overseer."

That....is apparently pushing Harkun a smidge too far. A small burst of Force Lightning hits her, the agony curling down her nerves.

"And one more, thing, slave," he adds when the lightning subsides. "You'll be competing with Ffon for the map and he's already started. I suggest you run."

Bastard.

Comments

[infinitest]

The Dashade regards Ibani with reptilian eyes and predatory gaze. "I am Khem Val, servant of Tulak Hord, devourer of the rebels at Yn and Chabosh" it growls. "Together we brought the Dromund System to its knees."

"And I am hungry." No, that was not ominous at all.

[last_kallig]

Having a creature look at you as a meal is something Ibani's used to, thanks to tukata and shyracks. But, Khem Val is a PERSON, and she's not used to people looking at her as if she was a piece of chocolate wrapped in bacon.

Force, it's horribly creepy and disturbing!!

"Khem Val, I fear I must bring you ill news," she begins, certain that this is necessary but not going to end well. "Tulak Hord has been dead for centuries."

[infinitest]

And that makes the creature roar in anguish and hate, straining against the invisible bonds of the stasis field. "Dead?!? NO! My master, why haven't you come for me? I would have died by your side; no, I'd have slain death itself!"

"Fate is cruel, little Sith, for me and for you" lightning crackles as the Dashade flexes titanic muscles. "You should not have come here, because... I... am... hungry!"

It's... it's breaking free!

[last_kallig]

Oh, Kark it! Later, there will be time for pondering how attached Khem Val appears to have been to his master, to feel sympathy for his loss and his anger. Right now it's time to stay alive!

Ibani draws her blade, holding it vertically with both hands on the right side of her body, the opening stance of the Ataru style. Dashade are resistant to Force abilities and she doesn't want to stay within his reach where he can tear her apart.

Ibani calls the Force to herself to enhance her speed, strength and reactions. With her body properly enhanced by the Force, the Hawk-Bat Swoop maneuver will hopefully allow her to rush in, strike, and retreat before Khem Val can react.

[infinitest]

She is helped by the fact that centuries in stasis weakened the Dashade, and the effort to break free finished the job; the strike lands just as Kehm Val starts to get up, making him fall to his knees with a roar of pain. "Rawgh! Defeated... defeated... why didn't you come for me, Tulak Hord? Why do you allow your servant to be reduced to this?"

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Ibani keeps her blade at the ready and pointed toward him, just in case the battle isn't over.

"Do you yield?" she asks, solemn. She hopes he does, because she's not certain how much she can hurt him without KILLING him.

[infinitest]

It glares at Ibani, then snorts. "Fine, little one. In my great weakness, you defeated me, so I must serve you; this is the law that binds me."

The Dashade pulls itself to its feet, eying the wound the blade left. "But you are not my real master; you are just lucky and your strength is a pale shadow of Tulak Hord's."

[last_kallig]

Ibani can feel the truth in his words of being bound to serve her, and it makes her vastly uncomfortable. Being bound to serve someone you clearly hate is...wrong on so many levels. (It rather smacks of slavery, in fact.) On the other hand, he would certainly kill and EAT her if he was free, along with who knows how many other Force Sensitives.

For now, uncomfortable as this is for her, the situation must stand. "Of course I don't measure up to Tulak Hord," Ibani replies with a wry smile. "I am young, and your Master had years upon years of battles and conquests under his belt."

Ibani also eyes the wound she left on him. "Do you require healing? she asks as she searches through the warblades she's collected to find the one closest to being the appropriate heft for Khem.

"I am seeking a map held in the innermost chamber of this tomb, do you know of it?"

[infinitest]

"If you didn't find it yet, it must be in the lower chambers." The Dashade seems to not even acknowledge the question about healing, pointing at a set of stairs and catwalks to the side of the huge chamber.

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Ibani offers the best of the warblades she's collected to Khem hilt first.

"Then that's our next stop." She doesn't press him about the healing. If he collapses or something she can always heal him THEN. (And a small, not very nice part of her points out that things would be much easier if Khem Val died in this tomb. She pushes the thought away as best she can.)

Down the set of stairs and catwalks they go until the feel of Dark Side Sith Sorcery is so thick that it makes it hard to breath. What looks like a simple boulder blocks their path, but the power here tells Ibani that things are not so simple. The wrong person trying to move that rock is liable to beg for the sweet release of death before the end finally arrives.

[infinitest]

It should be another ominous sign that Khem Val seems hardly bothered by the Dark Side energies filling the deepest levels of the tomb; the Dashade regards the rock with clear disdain.

And a snort.

[last_kallig]

Ominous yes, but useful! She's not in a position to turn away help even if the help thinks of her as a tasty snack.

"Doesn't look that impressive," Ibani quips. "I would have at least sprung for ominous runes and an actual DOOR." Because there is such a thing as STANDARDS when it comes to tomb traps.

"If you would remove the boulder please, Khem."

[infinitest]

The Dashade eyes Ibani, but makes no comment; the large boulder is grasped by taloned hands and massive arms, Dark Side energies flowing like a mist and small arcs of electricity.

Kehm Val seems hardly more bothered than by a few bug bites, and rolls the boulder out of the way, revealing a long darkened hallway; but then the Dashade stops and sniffs the air. "Something smells of anger, little sith."

[last_kallig]

Khem's resistance to the Force is quite impressive, and she's VERY glad she didn't try to use Force abilities to subdue him earlier.

Ibani starts to enter the hallway, but pauses at his comment. She reaches out with the Force, only to feel something old, hungry, and unnatural lurking in the room beyond; that something comes out of the shadows as Ibani cautiously takes a few more steps, a Terentatek, but one far larger than any she's heard of before.

Force resistant and hungry for the blood of Force-Sensitives, the Terentatek will not go down easily.

[infinitest]

Yet another reason to let Khem Val charge in, roaring what might be a battle cry; the Terentatek is even slightly intimidated by the bold charge, but swings at the Dashade anyway.

That is quickly revealed to be a mistake: Khem Val strikes at the creature's limb, slicing hide, flesh and tendons, smashing bone. The large beast staggers back, roaring in pain, and its bone-armor barely prevents the Dashade from skewering its brain.

[last_kallig]

Ibani does not allow her jaw to drop as Khem takes apart the beast's arm, but she's very surprised. It would appear that he's recovering his strength far faster than she imagined possible!

She gives herself a mental shake and tries to judge how to assist Khem in the fight. She's not counting on her ability to get her blade through the Terentatek's armor, not with a metal blade. On the other hand, there are lots of heavy statues in here, and chucking one of those into the creatures legs should at least slow the karking thing, maybe even cripple a limb.

Ibani reaches out with the Force and picks up her heavy, ugly, stone missile. She waits until the Terentatek is trying to wheel around to hit Khem with its working front limb, then lets the statue fly with all her strength into the beast's rear legs.

[infinitest]

It turns out the help is very welcome, because Khem Val is not recovered and there's only so far raging will get you; the impact pushes the Terentatek off-balance and allows the Dashade to catch its breath. Khem takes the offensive again, trying to land a killing blow while the larger beast hunkers down to use its head-armor for full effect.

[last_kallig]

Ibani 'grabs' for another statue, lifting it and waiting for a moment of weakness in her prey.

When the Terentatek hunkers down to battle Khem, she thinks she sees a weaker place where its head meets its body. She sends the second statue slamming down onto the beast from up above, hoping to crack the bone armor there.

[infinitest]

It's hard to tell if the trick worked or not at first, with the stone dust rising and stone chips flying as the statue cracks and shatters with the impact. Khem does not miss the opening Ibani created, anyway, slashing at the Terentatek's neck. The large beast stumbles and falls, giving the Dashade another opening: the warblade is shoved under its jaw, all the way up to the brain.

[last_kallig]

Ibani's adrenaline is rushing as Khem deals the killing blow. Even that monstrosity isn't going to survive having a warblade shoved into its brain for long!

She grins fiercly at Khem as the beast shudders its last.

She checks the chamber with the Force, and finds nothing else alive in here other than the two of them.

"I wonder if it was Naga Sadow's creation," she muses to Khem as she investigates the corpse.

[infinitest]

The Dashade is rather winded... clearly, far from recovered from the long centuries on that stasis field. "It was weak," it pulls itself up with a grunt, and starts tearing open the Terentatek's chest with powerful talons "and good for one thing."

[last_kallig]

"Or two things, " Ibani replies as Khem Val starts tearing open the Terentatek's chest. "A momentary diversion and providing food for you."

While Khem is....busy, Ibani searches the chamber for the map. It's not hard to find, as it's on a dais in the back of the room. She peers at the map for a moment, regretting that she doesn't have the technology on hand to make a copy of the map. She'd very much like to know what her new master is interested in, for her own safety.

Sadly, nothing else in the chamber is worth looting. Ibani was hoping for other artifacts, crystals, even weapons, but what she finds is dust and rubble.

[infinitest]

Khem is soon done with his meal, and seems less... well, less prone to try to have a slice of sith acolyte on rye. He pulls the warblade free from the Terentatek's skull. "What now, little one?"

[last_kallig]

Khem being less ravenous is a relief. "Now we head back to the Sith Academy with this map," Ibani explains as she stows the map for safe keeping.

She sneers. "And as Overseer Harkun is a petty tyrant and sadly predictable, I'm certain he will attempt to thwart me."

She gives Khem a sharp smile. "I will insist on giving Lord Zash the map, personally. If anyone tries to take the map from me, you may deal with them as you wish."

[infinitest]

Khem Val nods and follows along; on the way back, they meet with a few acolytes, whose ragged and worn out looks indicate they are failures who ran and hid to avoid execution.

Half-mad and desperate, the first group attacks Ibani before they see the Dashade escorting her.