Log:Jedi Order: Did He Smile?
Jedi Order: Did He Smile?
OOC Date: July 19, 2021
Location: Kessel
Participants: Jedi Order: Aryn Cortess, Rune, Kasia Ashkuri, Zandra naMuriel, Jax Greystorm, and Rey Skywalker with Ben Solo
The ship Aryn grounded at the slave facility (if it could be called that) on Selonia had lead them here, to the spice mines of Kessel. Renowned across the galaxy as beyond the pale with regard to mistreatment of laborers, these mines are dark and dangerous with a standard life expectancy of five years for a human worker. Heavily guarded, the mine doubles as a prison, with a term here essentially equating to a death sentence, garnering a small cash purse for planets that send their death row inmates here to work.
And now the Jedi had infiltrated the mines.
Operating under Ben's guidance, they had been admitted through the secure facility and escorted by a single skittish guard to the entrance of the mines who abandoned them there with a simple farewell of "Your funeral" before locking the door behind them.
That was three hours ago.
Now, the Jedi are deep in the mines, hopelessly lost, walking in the dark, surrounded by fumes that will entitle them or a loved one to financial compensation in ten years. "I knew it was a maze but I didn't think it would be this bad," Ben remarks, frowning, the dim but constant light from a chemstick doing little to cut through the prevailing gloom. "This is worse than the Pit," the station they nearly died on previously and sailed past to get here.
Wearing the thermal suit provided by the doorway of their entrance, Aryn is still cold. In the scant light, she can see her breath. She had heard stories about the mines on Kessel, about the monsters that lurked in the cold darkness waiting for miners in order to snatch them up and munch on their warm juicy insides. The thought put a chilling tremble right down the center of Aryn's spine and prompted her to look behind her, then up, then behind again. "How does one.. /do/ spice or.. however it is conveyed..?" Aryn asks innocently, turning her gaze to the wall that's been mined out.
Even having been used to a manner of foul odor and savage lands, Rune clutches his nose and peers through slit eyes at the surrounding darkness, pierced only by the lights they carry. "I am not sure, I learned of spice not too long ago." he replies to Aryn, his hand never straying too far from the clunky black cylinder that sways from his belt. He too wears the thermal suit provided them at the entrance, not trusting the thick jedi robes to provide anything more than a measure of defense in any situation. The Ysannan peers past Ben with a measure of fear, not having the background stories that the others know of, the general sense of foreboding is enough to raise the hairs on the back of his neck. "I have a bad feeling about this." He claims, looking back at the rest of the group as they make their way deeper.
Jax moves quietly with the group. Though after a while he does respond, "I would never thought, I would have needed the meditation drills for tromping around on a mission. Though it's best I'm not trying to grab some sleep and walking." He looks up at Rune saying he has a bad feeling about things. "Anything specific or just in general?"
Cold. Dark. Thermal suit needed. Monsters in out of the way corners? Check. Must be another mission related to those Dathomiri witches. What else could it be? Zandra also uses the provided thermal suit, because like the others, she prefers not to freeze into a statue. Her gaze flickers to Aryn and Rune, but she remains silent on how one does spice. Her hair is up in its usual braid, out of the way and efficient. She tries to reach for the Force, hoping to find a sense of which direction to go, so that maybe they won't be quite so lost. It seems a reasonable thing to try, though she's not having much luck.
Cold. Dark. Thermal suit needed. Monsters in out of the way corners? Check. Must be another mission related to those Dathomiri witches. What else could it be? Zandra also uses the provided thermal suit, because like the others, she prefers not to freeze into a statue. Her gaze flickers to Aryn and Rune, but she remains silent on how one does spice. Her hair is up in its usual braid, out of the way and efficient. She tries to reach for the Force, hoping to find a sense of which direction to go, so that maybe they won't be quite so lost. It seems a reasonable thing to try, though she's not having much luck.
"Depends on the kind of spice," Kasia remarks to Aryn from behind a kerchief that she's using in a futile effort to block fumes. "There are a variety, and a variety of ways to do the spice depending on how it's processed." She slides a glance over at Rune as the familiar words are uttered, brows furrowing slightly. "You always say that." A muffled sigh can be heard from behind the kerchief as she continues to navigate the dark space. "We'll find our way out. I have the unfortunate fortune of having been in here once before, and I made it out then. We can all do it again." She slides a glance in Ben's general direction. "This is worse than the Pit, though. Hopefully we have at least as much luck here as we had there."
Rey is wandering amongst the rest through the mine tunnels with her eyes roaming this way and that. Her white hood is up over her head and she's holding the back of either of her arms with her hands, because of the chill in the air. She strides along quietly with Dio rolling across the ground beside her feet. The Scout Droid has a little light on that it's shining around the cavern as it goes, while softly talking to itself about how eerie this place is, and occasionally asking Rey if they'll ever get out of here alive which gets a soft 'Yes, of course we will.' response of some variety.
Eventually, Rey had to unclip the breather mask off of her belt that Chewie had given her on the Falcon, he knew this place after all and in his protective way he prepared the mask for Rey before she disembarked. The place stunk, after all, and the Wookiee was all too familiar with it.
Ben has no protective mask from Chewie, and that is fair, all things considered. The air is cold but not instant-death cold, fortunately, just very uncomfortable, at least in these parts of the mines where there has so far been adequate oxygen. "I don't know exactly what it is we're here to find, only that those slaves were being taken here and the matriarch from Zifa's village wasn't there," Ben repeats again, for what is probably the fourth time in the several hours they've been walking through the mines. There is a stubborn insistence that yes, they will find something eventually, if they just keep walking. "We're going to find them and bring them back. One way or another."
Rounding the next corner dumps the Jedi out into a larger area, equally as dark as the others, the roughhewn walls supported here and there by industrial girders. In the dim light they carry with them, it's not difficult to notice that the girders are covered in a strange, almost crystalline web of something that, though it does not produce any light of its own, sparkles and dances reflectively back at those sources brought into the space.
"Strange," he comments, reaching out to touch the substance and pulling his finger back. "It's sticky." For a moment, all is silent, but then those closely attuned to their senses will get a little of that Bad Feeling Rune has been talking about, as enormous spined spiders, each sporting at least a dozen spiked legs, drop from the ceiling, lashing out immediately at the least fortunate Jedi, Kasia and Aryn with their barbed forelegs.
SWISH! Goes Aryn's cape which prompts her to turn about and look. She had not had any warning of that danger, but they may have been because it missed. "Ack! There is something here with long legs!" Aryn musters courage enough to stand her ground, but it's not quite the fortitude she needs to marshall the Force to do the same. Her hand goes through the motion of summoning her will to send the spider back from whence it came, it just lacked the execution.
Resorting now to less-than subtle action, Aryn unhooks the curved hilt from her belt and presses down on the glowing purple activation stud to bring her lightsaber to life. She puts the blade between her and danger, dancing back now.
With a twist of his head from side to side, Rune responds to Jax. "Just... just a bad feeling. I do not like this place." He admits, a shrug being given to Kasia remark. "That is true, I do. But in all fairness, we do tend to visit many places that would give one a feeling of unpleasantness." He sighs, thin lips pulling into a line while he stays on edge and prepared for what would most likely be the worst. It's not that he's a pessimist, he's just been around this group long enough to know to expect the unexpected at all times, folk tend to live a little longer that way.
As if to prove his point, the general bad feeling gets a bit more focused when they are beset upon by crystalline arachnids. "Spiders!" Rune grabs at the hilt attached to his belt to pull the black saber free and, for once, the lightsaber comes loose without losing a piece to the darkness. Button depressed, a green column springs to life, and Rune moves in to attack the creatures with no hesitation. However, the spiders are quite a bit faster than he gave them credit for and, though the light casts interesting shadows in the gloom of the mine, his swings are ultimately only useful in driving the one spider slightly away. "Well... that's not good."
"It's not a good place here in the force or not, so that's fair." Jax responds to Rune. Then there's several energy spiders moving towards them. Jax's hands goes to his saber but find the stun weapon there instead. Then he raises his hand and calls out to the force to one of the energy spider. "Leave and go in peace." He frowns, "Their mind is nothing like a human mind." He says with a frown.
Zandra is not attacked by the spiders, at least, but they did attack first. She looks at Jax, a smile crossing her lips at his comment. "Well, they are spiders," she says, with a shrug, as she moves to engage one. Her lightsaber ignites as she speaks and then she swings. The first shot misses the spider, crackling and sizzling through the air. Zan however uses that swing to improve her range. That allows her to ignite the second blade on her saber as she steps into it, and the second blade slashes at the spider as she turns on her heel, following that up with another slash, that sizzles across the spider, before she takes up a defensive posture for a bit.
It's cold enough that even with her gloves on, Kasia's hands are cold. COLD. She flexes her fingers to try and keep the blood flowing through her frosty digits. "I should have brought heavier gloves." The remark is spoken absently as she tucks her hands beneath each opposite arm for warmth. "True," she says in response to Rune. "We do go to a lot of places that inspire bad feelings."
The strange substance on the girders draws her focus away from the conversation on bad feelings, of which she has none to warn her of what lurks overhead. "What is that?" She leans in a little closer to get a better look, hands slipping out from beneath her arms as one glove reaches out toward that substance Ben dubs as sticky when she feels something tickle her hair. "...something is IN MY HAIR." It's not a shout exactly, the volume does rise slightly as does the pitch as she ducks and flails one arm around her head while her other hand takes hold of the saber on her hip and activates it with a sweep of her thumb. Three quick slashes do little to damage the spiders, though one mine wall is left with a memento of her unsuccessful attacks.
Rey and the little droid stop when Ben speaks of the silk he finds on the wall and she's in the process of looking up just as the spiders decide to come down out of the dark. She could sense them, but it was too late, they were nimble and fast!
"Regrets! R-regrets! Regreeeets!" Dio's tinny voice says as the little cone head droid turns and rolls at high speed back to where Rey is to hide behind her ankles!
Rey's right hand shoots up toward one of the Spiders as the sabers come ona nd the swings are taken, she splays her fingers out and her brown eyes widen as she stares at the Beast with intent.
'Calm. Yourself.' Rey speaks out to the creature as it hesitates, not entirely wanting to obey the thoughts put in its head, but eventually it settles back, almost like its sitting down on the cavern floor, as Rey walks slowly toward it... her hand held up while the others defend themselves.
Dio rolls slowly after Rey. "R-Rey, lets go-go back to the Fa Falcon."
Ben does not channel calm the way that Rey does. He is the other half of that dichotomy, and when the spiders drop from the ceiling to attack, he answers in kind. The fiery lightsaber activates almost the instant it clears the clip on the backside of his hip, its blade a hot brand of flame around the plasma core, and he lashes out with the kind of businesslike attitude of a lumberjack felling a tree, heavy on power and low on finesse.
The energy spiders, alternately enraged and terrified by light, take it in turns to skitter back from the bright blades and then scamper forward to lash out with their spiked legs at the hated lights and the Jedi behind them. One hangs back for now, considering Rey's influence, and after a lot of thought, spits a glob of sticky crystalline webbing at Kasia's head.
Aryn backs up until she cannot back anymore and is forced to engage with the spider. Bringing her weapon to striking distance, Aryn goes through the fluid motions of a flurry-like attack, striking a leg, then cutting into the torso before concluding with a small spin that oriented her blue blade down, where she stabbed /down/ and into the spider's body to finish it. Withdrawing her weapon and moving on, Aryn brings the weapon's blade back in front of her to keep it between herself and the immediate danger.
With nothing more to do than flail at the spider that dances in front of him, Rune does so, the twirling green blade slicing more air than any thing effective against these beasts. At least it hasn't hurt anyone yet since the young Jedi is proving ineffective against such an agile creature. "May need a hand here!" He claims, his additional strikes flowing harmlessly around the arachnid as it skitters and slips away from each slashing blade.
Jax quickly dodges the energy spider's attack and then focus the force around him as a shield as it comes in for another bite. The force protecting him from damage. Then as his hand goes to his stunsaber, "I tried." Then his opponent died before he can respond. He flicks his extended saber to Aryn in a salute. Then turns to strike at the spider attack Zandra. "I'm trying to help Rune.' Then with a bit of a surprise as the ion damage does more damage than he expected. "I didn't expect that."
There's a spider taking exception to Zan's over the top lightsaber! She dodges the first attack completely, but the second spiked claw comes down, scoring her robes, though it doesn't break skin. "Here now!" she exclaims, as she turns to attack that spider in return. "Look, I quite understand we look tasty, but we are rather predatory ourselves, so you really ought to have thought twice about this," she says, as she feints to the top, then slashes with the second blade, that one slicing into the spider, before Zan spins around, her third swipe over the spider's head.
Though spiders aren't among Kasia's favorite things, now that her focus has shifted to their arachnid attackers the cold is less noticeable. So, you know, temporary silver lining to the attack. The spider that Zandra is both attacking and trying to reason with finds another quick attack aimed at it, the pink blade biting through the carapace with an ugly efficiency. A glob of something she just barely notices is shot at her, managing to leap to one side to avoid the unpleasant substance. Another quick jump brings her close enough to the offending creature to slash at it as well. Possibly ruining whatever plans Rey had for it, but it spat goo at her and she can't stand for that.
Rey hears the combat progressing around her, she can feel the spider sbeing cut down around them, having only been protecting their territory, she feels some measure of regret herself. But they were attacking and their survival was paramount over the Spiders own...
As the Spider she controls become the target of her companions, Rey walks further forward and keeps her hand up and fingers apart.
'Run.' She commands the Beast.
Even as it suffers injury after spitting at Kasia, the Beast takes the command, hears it in its core, and suddenly backs up and spins toward the darkness to flee with its long spiny legs carrying it toward retreat!
Rey slowly lowers her hand to her side, flexes her fingers and then feels Dio bump in to her right ankle. She lowers down then and grabs the droid by its central body. She stands up and slips him in to the bag on her back, designed for the Droid specifically. "Come on, stay with me for now." She tells him.
Rey looks to the others then and nods once. "Lets keep going, there very well could be more..." she says in a calm voice.
Dio looks around from the bag hanging from rey's shoulders, peering over her right shoulder now curiously.
"Help! Help me!"
With the energy spiders dead or sent scuttling into the eaves, the Jedi can hear the calls from further down the mine. Proceeding that way brings them into a smaller, secondary chamber. The walls are covered more thickly with the crystalline webbing, something a veteran miner could tell them can be processed into glitterstim before being ingested in a variety of ways that might fascinate the doctor among them. But under the webbing is a grimmer sight: bodies, both of small creatures native to the mines and unfortunate sentients, humans, and even a Wookiee. Their corpses are withered and dry, more mummified than rotten, but among them is a wriggling 'live one' stuck up to the far wall, ashy skin visible vaguely through the light brought with them.
"Help, I am begging you. I do not know when they will be returning to drink of my life, please, cut me down," the woman implores, her grey hair matted with webbing.
With the threat gone, for now, Aryn moves to help the ashen woman, commencing in her liberation by passing the humming sapphire blade over whatever substance or resin that held them in place. The swing was fluid, graceful, and concluded in a single pass, prompting Aryn to recall the blade there after and place the hilt back upon her belt, 'clicking' it in place. "Are you wounded?" She asks, drawing out a satchel with the universal sigil for first aid etched on it; if she could see it that is!
"Thank you!" Rune cries to Jax, his skills proving useless against the foe that harries them. Thankfully the rest are able to do their part, the last spider turning to flee with some Force motivated assistance from Rey. After a few moments, turning about to see if there are any further surprise attacks to come, Rune thumbs the button on his hilt, the green light that illuminates his immediate area withdrawing with a squeal.
The saber is not replaced on his hip, instead choosing to clutch it in his hand. His eyes take a moment to adjust to the returning darkness before they press on, the sound of pleas halting their progress before Aryn cuts the unfortunate soul down. Or perhaps, since she has been saved, most would consider her to be the lucky one. Aryn's question is asked and the Ysannan adds another, "How did you get here?" he glances back in the direction the spider fled, assuring himself that the nimble beast is gone for now.
Jax stands down for a moment looking around the cave. Then takes up a stance to be security for the scene. He nods as Aryn frees the woman wrapped in webs. "That wasn't what I had expected to find but the force does provide doesn't it?"
Zandra, with the spiders down or fled, stares after that departing spider as she first clicks one blade out of existence. She takes a long breath and then the second blade as well winks out. She holds the saber hilt in hand though, in case. "Teamwork," she says, with a brief smile. "It does occur to me that these spiders probably don't speak - ah well." A shrug, a little rueful, and Zan moves forward with the group. She pauses at the sound of the voice, stopping to guard at least one door of the room. Just in case.
Kasia watches that last spider skitter off into the darkness and makes no effort to chase, she simply watches the place it skitters off to for a few moments before her gaze jerks over to the source of the voice. The saber in her hand raises to illuminate the spot a little more while Aryn works the woman free. She keeps her weapon in hand, just in case the spiders, or anything else decides to come and pay them a visit.
"Oh, oh, no." Dio says at the screams, his cone head going back behind Rey's neck to hide.
Rey steps after the others, her eyes following Aryn's progress in making the cuts to free the captive. "We're here to help. You'll be safe with us." She offers to the person as she's freed, seemingly at least.
"We're members of the new Jedi Order, and we're looking for... well... here." Rey reaches to her satchel on her hip and pulls out a small canteen filled with water that she'll offer to the woman when and if she's willing to accept it.
"Thank you," the Dathomiri woman breathes as she is cut free and falls loose from the webbing, her thermal suit still sticky and reflective from the lace of glitterstim covering it. "I do not know if I am hurt. I feel so weak." She takes a moment to gather herself before answering more questions. "I am being the last left alive. I was stolen from my village, taken from place to place. We were brought here days ago, forced to mine, as are all the doomed souls you will find in this place. We were separated from the crew and the overseers are not being careful to recover lost slaves. We are thrown away, do you understand? We are like nothing to them, we die and they buy five more. Always the workers are dying and always there are new workers." Her eyes are hollow, her voice bordering on panicked. "I was sure at first that you would leave me here to die, or that you were the overseers come to take me back and having me put back to work."
The offered canteen has her recoiling slightly, as if fearing being struck, before she reaches out a tentative hand to take it.
Ben steps forward then, straight to the point. "Were the others taken all sent here? They're all dead?"
"No. No, the mother, she and a few of the others, the witches, they were separated from us. We were the throw-away people, do you understand? They wanted /them/. We swore we would never tell, never betray each other. We were brought before a man in a mask and he would put his hands on our heads. He /knew./ Then they were taken. We heard whispers only, of a place very difficult to reach, only very skilled flyers could land a ship there. That is all that I know. Please, Jedi. It is very cold."
A long, winding walk back through the mines awaited them, but they had rescued another of the kidnapped and found another clue.
