Fwurg

[Mercury]

The Xomlirga is an unaligned Force user who lives on the forest world of Exa-12 in Sector 12 -3. They are rumoured to know some unique force powers and they have indicated to be willing to teach these powers to the Jedi.

The Jedi Council wishes to send a pair of Jedi to visit them and learn their ways to hopefully gain new insights into the Force. Once they complete their lessons, the Jedi are to create a Holocron containing the learning so future Jedi may benefit from it.

((OOC: This mission is open to up to two Jedi Padawans, with an expected posting frequency of twice a week. It will be a short mission. If successfully completed, the Jedi will receive a specific Force Power not currently available. Once they complete the mission, that Force Power will be open for other Jedi to pick up as well.

Please do not enter this mission if you already entered for a different one of the three missions I posted today, to prevent clogging up the missions.))

[Nathan Miodrass Asillion]

Nathan signed up for the mission. He was interested in Force users other than the jedi and learning about them.

[Ariana Danacia]

Ariana signed up for the mission. Allthough most Praetorians see wealth as a direct representation of power she thinks knowledge is more important.

"Hello Nathan, it is good to see you again. I am glad we are not here to fight each other this time."


((OOC: I am away from 20 July till 27 July which means I can probably not post that week.))

[Mercury]

The ship carrying Nathan and Ariana had made good time despite being held up by a Remunzian patrol to ensure the emissions of their ship was within their stringent tolerance levels. The formality was soon handled however and when the ship dropped out of hyperspace after the final jump, Exa-12 was showing below in all of its green glory, only the polar icecaps suggesting anything except forest on the ocean-less world.

The coordinates they had been sent to were in the temperate zone which like the rest of the planet was filled up with trees, trees and more trees. Landing was going to be an issue.

((OOC: Welcome to the story! Can I get a list of equipment with the next posts please?))

[Ariana Danacia]

Ariana connected the ships computer with the Jedi mainframe (and other large databases on Unity) and looked for information about this planet. Searching for maps, inhabitants, cities, important locations and landing sites.

After retrieving and looking through the information Ariana used the ships scanners to scan the area that they were supposed to land looking for a suitable landing site and life signs.

((Check: 14 = 6 Force Level + 6 Reason + 2 Programming -- Searching for useful information about this planet, maps and inhabitants, etc.))

((OOC: Equipment of Ariana:
Dagger blade and regular blade lightsabers with short handles
Two DH-17 blaster pistols
Two sets of 5 lightweight throwing knives
First Aid Kit
Engineers Kit
Communication pad (A very advanced touchscreen computer device for communication and interfacing with larger systems)
Backpack (containing the First Aid Kit, Engineers Kit and communication pad), worn
A wireless communicator headset, worn
A dark blue coat with pockets, that are hidden from sight, for knives and blasters, worn))

[Nathan Miodrass Asillion]

Nathan had been quiet for the entire journey. He waited until the ship was inside the planets atmosphere and making it's approach to the coordinates.

He got up grabbed his stuff and headed to the ship's outer door.

"Pilot, find a treetop near specified coordinates and hover the ship as close to it as you can. We're heading out."

Then he looked at Ariana.

"Come on, stop fiddling with the ship and lets go."

And like that he opened the ship's outer door. As the ship hovered he looked for a nice thick branch, when a wave of nostalgia overcame him. Back in the marines he had jumped out of ships regularly. Too bad a thick forest like this was unsuited for a hard-drop. Or he would have simply jumped out without looking.

Finding a suitable branch he jumped to it.

((Check: 12 = 5 Force Level + 4 Fitness + 2 Athletics + 1 Force Jump -- Jumping from the ship to a nearby thick tree branch.))

((OOC: Built in:
- Enhanced Sight (Infra red, Ultra violet, Night vision and optical zoom)
- Wireless links (communication (no vocals required), wireless networks (for computers))
- Finger cam (small camera in the tip of his index finger, mainly used for looking around corners or thrue small cracks)
- Radiation detector (detects Alfa-, Beta-, Gamma-, and neutron-radiation)

Carrying:
- Long hilted, long lightsaber
- Three combat knives (mat black, titanium, balanced for throwing, one in his right boot, one horizontal on the back of his belt and one upside-down on the left of his chest)
- Blaster pistol (Standard issue STF Marine Officers Side-arm)
- Thermo blanket (rolled up into a bundle and strapped to his back)
- Long rope
- Two three meter long shoelaces))

[Mercury]

Exa-12 was an uninhabited world - no cities, no towns, no space ports. It was one big world of woodland, designation as a natural preserve by the Remunzian government, which explained why nobody had settled it.

The best maps Ariana could come up with were images made from the ship while moving in for a landing, and those showed a general "treeness" to the environment. In fact, everything and their mother on this planet was either a tree, in a tree, a former part of a tree or under a tree.

As for landing sites, Ariana had a choice between a tightly packed patch of broad-leaved trees and conifer, a cluster of tightly packed broad-leaved trees and conifer or a grouping of broad-leaved and coniferous trees that were tightly packed. This world had a wild variety of arboreal treasure, and none of it gave a piece of seed about Ariana's desire to land.

Finally, life-signs. If only. Sure, there were life-signs. But the giant green blob that told Ariana everything down there was alive was not very helpful for anything. The best they could do would probably be to get out at the indicated coordinates and hope for the best... oh boy.

Nathan was not as bothered about this. With a jump he stepped out of the ship, bounding between thin branches reaching for the skies, none of which could carry his weight, until he could find a solid branch to brake his descent on some ten meters lower that the roof of the canopy, where he landed safely.

From the branch, Nathan could see the forest stretching out in all directions - the trees were fifty to a hundred meters high and from his position it was at least another eight meters to the ground. There was leaf almost everywhere, and the further down the darker it got, with every drop of light being slurped up by the forest as if it was as precious as water in the desert.

He'd have to climb down just to reach the ground...

[Nathan Miodrass Asillion]

Nathan fell a bit further than he had expected. With a shake of his head he shook off the disorientation.

Grabbing the rope, he slung it around the tree trunk. Tying a highpoint hitch knot to secure the rope to the tree but be able to release it later. He tested the knot by pulling on the rope.

Satisfied he made a single coil around his foot and threw the rest of the rope down. Stepping on the rope around his foot with his other foot to stop it from slipping, he grabbed the rope with both hands and gently lowered himself of the branch. By releasing the rope between his feet and placing one hand underneath the other he slowly but surely descended down the rope.

((Check: 12 = 5 Force Level + 5 Strength + 2 Athletics -- climbing down via the rope))

[Ariana Danacia]

"I guess we are not going to land at all.

Pilot, you can head to Remunzia and take some time off, We will call for you when we are ready to leave. "

Ariana made sure that the Pilot carried a communicator that she could connect with from her datapad. (This could mean bringing a antenna to connect to the remunzian holonet)

Ariana took some food from the ship and stuffed it in her backpack next to the other equipment. After that she headed to the outer door. Instead of jumping down to the treetop Ariana made a small sprint out of the door and jumped in the air. After flying up and circling around for a bit she looked for a weak spot in the roof of leaves that was large enough for her to fit through. Ariana made a dive and went straight down for as long as possible. Before she would hit the ground she slowed down and landed on the side of a tree and climbed the last few meters.

((Check: 11 = 6 Force Level + 4 Strength + 1 Force Speed + Natural Flight -- Flying down to the ground and climbing down the trees when needed.))

After she joined Nathan she said.
"I don't think we will find any road signs to our destination. The force will have to guide us."

Ariana concentrated on the nature around her and tried to make sense of the situation, looking for clues and searching for their destination.

((Check: 11 = 6 Force Level + 5 Energy -- Concentrating on the force signatures of the surroundings and looking for clues about their destination.))

[Mercury]

((OOC: Skill checks APPROVED.))

With some fancy ropework and flying, the two Jedi finally made their way through the thick canopy, landing on the ground below.

Before them the hilly ground was filled with the toppled remains of fallen trees, each now the tombstone of a warrior who had fought and died in the battle for the light, a rainbow of brown and grey mushrooms seeping from their wet rotting wood as if the light they had conquered during their lifetime was now leaking out of their flesh and back into the forest.

The perpetual twilight of this place, caused by those who were still in the battle hungrily absorbing every drop of light they could, cast the area in shadows, but even with his enhanced vision, Nathan could only see so far ahead before the trees hid the rest of the forest from view. Like the light, sounds were drowned out by the forest, absorbed by the trees and plants and what little did come through echoed between the trunks, making it impossible to know from which direction it was coming.

The floor they hand landed on was damp and covered in ferns which grew on a layer of dead leaves that the Jedi sank into all the way down to their ankles, mud squishing around their feet with every step and the tree trunks all around them were covered in various mosses and vine-like plants.

With all this life, the two Jedi were overwhelmed by the strange realization that they were alone down here. There was no border to this forest where the civilized world started once more, no paths laid out for them to walk on and no rangers making sure everyone who went in got out safely.

Following her instinct, Ariana led the way, but clues seemed few and far between and if there were any, she certainly didn't see them. However her instinct did not guide her wrong, as the two Jedi found themselves at the top of a hill where between the trees a stone had been erected, many aeons ago. The stone stood tall like a tree made of rock, reaching up almost as high as the canopy, its irregular shape covered in a thick layer of moss. Around the standing stone, a pattern of rocks had been laid out on the ground, forming a double spiral around its base, like the arms of a galaxy or the roots of a twisted tree.

And besides this, there was nothing. No person to greet them, no camp to stay in, no large open area, no features of note. Just the trees... and the standing stone.

[Ariana Danacia]

"This must be a clue. I am not sure what we should do here... Do you know what that pattern means? Let's look underneath the moss for texts and other clues and check the top of the stone."

Without waiting for a response Ariana climbed to the top of the stone to look for clues on the top of the stone and check out the possible view.

[Nathan Miodrass Asillion]

"Better not, this place seems important. Possibly even sacred, disturbing it will probably cause trouble."

Nathan looked around switching through his vision modes to see if something or someone was nearby.
((Check: 9 = 5 Force Level + 4 Vision -- looking out for people, creatures, traps, etc.))

"I'd get down if I where you."

[Mercury]

Ariana moved to climb the rock but soon found it to be more slippery than a Twi'lek covered in lubricant, foiling her chance to climb it.

Suddenly a woman stepped out of the bushes behind them - despite their Jedi senses and sharp eyes and hearing, neither of them had noticed her. The woman seemed Remunzian from her humanoid figure, though her body was young, childlike almost. Her eyes were an indigo, almost violet purple, seeming to glow and they were huge, staring into each of them like their flesh wasn't there and she was looking straight at their bones... or souls. Whatever it was, those eyes held someone much older than a child behind them.

The woman was dressed in a mixture of furs and woven plants and she was dirty, mud and grime having built up on her skin, twigs in her tangled hair of which the original colour was impossible to tell with all the plant matter that had rubbed through it over time. She went barefoot but there was jewellery hanging from every part of her body - all made of wood, dried flowers and twigs, woven grass and other handmade works.

She walked with a staff which was decorated in several places with the skulls of dead birds, lizards and other animals, and from her form came a mixture of the distinct smells of fresh earth, mud and compost heaps.

The woman did not speak, simply looking straight through them, as if dissecting their souls like a frog in a biology class.

[Nathan Miodrass Asillion]

Nathan put his hand on his lightsaber, cautious of the small woman.

"Hello, can you help us? We're Jedi from Unity and we're looking for a group of Force users that are supposed to live here."

While he spoke, Nathan tried to get an idea of her intentions with the Force.
((Check: 9 = 5 Force Level + 4 Intuition -- Trying to find out the Remunzian woman's intentions))

[Ariana Danacia]

Ariana was uncertain what to think about the person that sneaked up on them. She clearly had not spent enough time in nature lately. All Ariana said was: "Hello little one."

Ariana carefully looked around for other hidden creatures.

((Check: 10 = 6 Force Level + 3 Vision + 1 Stealth -- Looking around for other hidden creatures.))

[Mercury]

Ariana detected no other creatures, but she wasn't quite sure if there really weren't any. This place played tricks on you and the Force simply felt like there was life everywhere, making it hard to sense anything in particular.

The woman stared at them in silence, to a point where it became awkward and then some. Worse, Nathan couldn't get a fix on the woman's intentions, the penetrating stare seeming to distract him. Finally she spoke, her voice soft, only slightly louder than a whisper - not that the sound would have carried much further if she had screamed regardless.

"Go North for about an hour until you reach a stream." she pointed between the two Jedi, bony bracelets moving as she lifted her arm. "Follow the water for three hours until you reach a waterfall where it falls into a small pond. Then go north once again for another hour."

Having spoken, the woman went silent once again, her intense stair locking on the duo once more, finger pointing towards the north.

[Nathan Miodrass Asillion]

Nathan was slightly annoyed by the fact he couldn't make sense of the woman, but otherwise remained unaffected by the woman's staring. It was probably a good thing patience was a common virtue among Astrians.

He was cautious in trusting this woman, yet there was no reason for him not to. So he decided to trust in the ability of Ariana and himself to handle any problems should they arise.

"Could you, please, specify a distance ma'am? The distance we travel in an hour might be very different from the distance you travel in an hour, especially in a forest like this."

[Ariana Danacia]

"Maybe you could you accompany us and be our guide?"

Ariana waited for a response since the first marker is a stream that could be the first, but it could also be one of many...

[Mercury]

The woman - or girl perhaps - remained silent, still pointing in the direction she had indicated. Upon their continued questions she finally repeated herself:

"Go north until you reach a stream."

She looked at the Nathan, or rather to a point behind his head, speaking more slowly this time and exaggerating her articulation.

"Follow the water until you reach a waterfall that falls into a small pond."

She looked at a point behind Ariana's head next. Her tone of voice made it seem as if rather than to two Jedi, she was speaking to a child that wasn't very good at listening.

"Then go north once again. You will then find what you are looking for."

She shook her hand, her slender finger still outstretched and pointing in northern direction, boney bracelets shaking against one another.

[Ariana Danacia]

Ariana sighed for a moment and looked at Nathan.

"'I guess this is all we will get. Let's get to it."

Ariana marked the coordinates of their current location on her datapad and headed North. "Are you coming Nathan?"

Ariana followed the instructions.
"North to stream, Follow water until waterfall small pond, North to destination."

[Mercury]

Ariana and Nathan started their long walk through the forest. Continuing north, they indeed finally found the stream the woman had spoken of. It was not very big, but easy enough to find and soon they were following it along as it meandered through the forest in every direction except up.

Finally after at least three hours making their way through the dense forest, they came to a waterfall - it wasn't much of one, maybe ten meters down, but it ended in a small pond that looked like it would make an idyllic backdrop for a romantic movie if it wasn't so dark.

Checking their compass, they soon found that north was in a completely different direction than they had expected, the forest and meandering water having turned them around several times over, but now at least they were en route to their destination.

After another hour the sun had started going down, though they'd still have a few more hours of daylight. Not that daylight meant much here, the canopy absorbed most of it. Finally they arrived at the top of a hill where between the trees a stone had been erected, many aeons ago. The stone stood tall like a tree made of rock, reaching up almost as high as the canopy, its irregular shape covered in a thick layer of moss, except at the base where some large creature had attempted to climb it, scraping some of the moss off of it in her failed attempt.

Around the standing stone, a pattern of rocks had been laid out on the ground, forming a double spiral around its base, like the arms of a galaxy or the roots of a twisted tree. And besides this, there was nothing. No person to greet them, no camp to stay in, no large open area, no features of note. Just the tree... and the standing stone.

Or was there?

From out of the bushes behind them stepped a girl, the same small woman they had spoken to earlier - or her clone perhaps. She looking straight through them, as if once again dissecting their souls to make sure they indeed were the same inside as they had been before.

"These are trees." she patted one of the trees in the forest as if it was a dear friend. "They are tall, but despite their size, they are not skyscrapers."

The annoyance in her voice, which had been clearly there when she had repeated her walking instructions, was gone and now it seemed replaced with the patience of a kindergarten teacher explaining basic concepts to young children.

"These are rocks. They can be stacked, but they are not bricks and they are not part of houses." she continued "These are leaves. They lay on the ground and cushion your steps, but they are not roads."

That last part was for sure, if there had been roads here that five hour walk they had just done would not have been half as uncomfortable.

The young woman looked at them both and smiled warmly for a moment, as if expecting them to be in awe at this new learning she had presented them for some reason...

[Nathan Miodrass Asillion]

Nathan reprimanded himself for not paying enough attention when the woman spoke as he and Ariana followed her instructions.

The clean air and the untouched scenery did him good as they walked.

After they had reached their destination and had met the woman again, though he had doubts it actually was the same person, he listened to her words.

Intrigued by her words, strange and simple as they sounded, they where true. It was also an interesting analogy of the similarities between modern cities and forests.

Nathan looked at the woman.

"What you say is true, ma'am. In more ways than one. We are here on behalf of the Jedi. My name is Nathan.

Are you perhaps the one who is going to teach us?"

[Ariana Danacia]

Ariana looked at her datapad again, checking their current coordinates, to see where they were now. They could just as well have gone in a large circle and ended up at their previous location.

Ariana realised that she probably would not just teach them anything useful just yet. They probably would need to undergo a challenge before they would be allowed to learn the real lesson. She doubted that the five hour walk was the challenge.

"My name is Ariana. How can we help you?"

[Mercury]

As Ariana found on her datapad that indeed they had gone in a large circle and were now once again at the coordinates that the original message had directed them to, the young woman smiled warmly at Nathan.

"I started teaching you five hours ago."

She remained quiet for a moment, letting things sink in.

"The Jedi have lived amongst the cities for too long. You think in the patterns of people." she explained "Your training let you establish from my appearance what kind of person I am: you determined that I was a native to this region. Your training then let you model the information I might have available to me: I might know the person you are looking for. And finally your training let you use the most effective way to acquire that information from me: asking me for help, as if it were a small favour. And then you asked for more help, slowly manipulating me into a pattern of giving you more small bits of information, one at a time, until you had everything you wanted.

You are very good at what you do - it was hard for me to resist giving you the answers you wanted to hear instead of the answers you needed to hear so you could learn." she noted.

"But your skills are the skills of a city dweller. Your focus is on people. When you saw me, your attention was drawn away from everything else and all your thoughts were about me. Your entire thought process focussed on me. And by that, you missed out on the crucial details in the environment."

She paused a moment.

"How many people do you think live on this planet?"

[Ariana Danacia]

"I could look it up on my datapad, but that is probably not what you want. I have actually no idea."

Ariana paused for a moment.

"Yes we come from the city and have become reliant on technology. My ancestors were capable of prospering without technology. I am willing to learn to become more aware of nature."