Fwurg

[Shebi Ajava]

((OOC: I wasn't sure whether you (the ST) wanted to do a challenging climb, so I didn't collapse it to a single statement. This works ^_^))

After the ascend, Ajava silently (as far as the door allowed) enters the base. Seeing the primitive conditions of the building, she isn't surprised at the relative lack of security they experienced up till now.

"Right. Computer console... That is going to be difficult. Hopefully we will be able to determine what the purpose of this base is. It seems a bit strange to have a base without centralized systems. Let's see where all these local systems get their power from, from there we should be able to trace the big power consumption at least."

Ajava took point while sneaking through the base, trying to follow the power sources of the local systems to find some form of centralized power supply and, hopefully, a console.

((Check: 16 = 9 Force Level + 4 Fitness + 3 Stealth -- If necessary, she will use her Life Energy Manipulation to mask her and Ariana's presence.))

[Mercury]

Ajava found that the doors got little more than power from whatever central system there was. Still, the power lines were a better guide than the statues, which seemed inclined to stay perfectly still instead.

Following the power supply, the two Jedi were soon able to find a panel hidden behind a large panel that was painted as if it were a stone. It wasn't so much disguised as it was made to fit the environment.

The power node held a small console, which actually was completely unsecured. It had limited options however - Ariana would be able to cut power to this part of the castle, or restore it if it was disabled, but that was the extent of the panels use - it was not connected to any security systems directly.

Disabling the power would - however - disable most security in the area (they had not seen any yet though).

More interestingly, the node held a small schematic, showing that there were seven similar nodes around the castle, each powering a different part of the base. There was no map, but they were named:

• Balcony Level
• Cell Block & Torture Room
• Living Quarters
• Main Entrance
• Master Bedrooms
• Meditation Chamber
• Throne Room
• Training Hall

They were currently on the Balcony level. Even though it wasn't a map, the schematic would at least allow them to find each of the eight area's in the castle with little trouble.

[Ariana Danacia]

I am wondering whether they are keeping or torturing important prisoners here... We should check out the cells but probably not at first since they will most certainly be guarded. I have no idea why they have a meditation chamber here. These guys don't seem the meditating type. You scout ahead.

Ariana continued to follow Shebi Ajava at a short distance, trusting on her skill to avoid detection.

[Shebi Ajava]

Aren't you curious why they don't have a central system? Or why this unguarded power node provides a neat way to disable the security systems? They don't seem to expect any visitors, yet they do have guards patrolling at all times, and now we find an unguarded power node. I don't like this one bit.

Let's not touch this any further and move on.

Ajava quickly decided that the names don't necessarily have to indicate the actual function of the area they indicate, but decided to start with the Throne Room anyway.

While she moves through the castle, she remains alert for possible security measures and patrols.

((Check: 16 = 9 Force Level + 4 Fitness + 3 Stealth -- If necessary, she will use her Life Energy Manipulation to mask her and Ariana's presence.))

[Mercury]

Making their way to the throne room, Ajava and Ariana soon began to sense disturbances in the force... people were nearby, and they could hear the occasional voice or footsteps over the chanting now, that seemed to have gotten softer.

The Throne Room seemed to be an actual throne-room. It was a large room with a raised platform on one end and a large pair of doors on the other. Above where the two Jedi entered there were balconies on either side, with a connection over the doors, and three large Gothic windows behind the throne. The balcony through was edged by small pillars and a low wall that served as a safety rail - actually this balcony was ideal for assassinating the king, with the shadows in it. Why would anyone build it like this!?

From their vantage point they could see the stone throne, though it was now less of a throne and more of a piece of rubble, having been cut to pieces by lightsabers. Come to think of it, it seemed as if the floors and walls of the area too held lightsaber markings.

They soon realised why as one of the side doors was kicked open by a Mandalorian warrior wielding a lightsaber, who was using the body of an equally armed and armoured warrior as a virtual battering ram by propelling him through the air. The flying Mandalorian rolled back, jumped back to his feat and readied his lightsaber, ready to fight once more.

It seemed they were either practicing roughly or deciding who would be king, but whatever their objective, the two warriors had not yet noticed the Jedi... yet.

At least they were now clear on the purpose of the room!

[Shebi Ajava]

Leaving the two mandalorian warriors to their practice, Ajava stealthily moved through the castle to go get a better look at the master bedrooms. These people probably just retrofitted an older building for their purposes, so the name might be a complete misnomer.

((Check: 16 = 9 Force Level + 4 Fitness + 3 Stealth -- If necessary, she will use her Life Energy Manipulation to mask her and Ariana's presence.))

[Ariana Danacia]

Ariana was focused on the mission and followed Shebi Ajava to the next room.

[Mercury]

Moving further through the building, eventually the two Jedi found their way to the master bedrooms. These were hung with wispy silks, and pillows everywhere. You'd almost think someone civilized lived here, with the incense and the scented candles. Here too it was empty, but the atmosphere was a lot more pleasant.



That was, until they found a woman stripped of her skin as if she were a hanging from a hook in the centre of what otherwise looked like a pleasant coffee-room, the body having started to decay, flies buzzing around the stinking corpse.

Further along by a comfortable looking bed, a near-human man was chained to a steel rack, unconscious and covered in saber burns, but still alive.

[Ariana Danacia]

"This guys is still alive, maybe we should try to revive him and ask him why they are torturing him, he could be important. However we should probably do this after we scouted the other places and found nothing. He is not going anywhere and is still unconscious."

Ariana did a quick medical check-up to make sure he was not dieing at the moment. She made sure not to wake him up. When she had the idea he would be regain consciousness she would quickly give him a sedative.

Ariana waited for Shebi Ajava to continue to the next room.

((Check: 15 = 7 Force Level + 6 Reason + 2 First Aid -- Quickly checking the near-humans wounds to make sure he was not dieing.))

[Shebi Ajava]

"He could also be some random victim they pulled from the cells...", Ajava replied Ariana started her check-up.

While Ariana did her ting Ajava's thoughts wandered, idly considering the things they had seen so far. First, the throne room, then this. Up till now there didn't seem to be an actual point to the presence of these mandalorians here, except if this would be a training facility of sorts. As she waited, her imagination ran astray, giving her some interesting ideas. As she waited for Ariana to finish up, Ajava was idly considering what the screams of the woman sounded like when she was being flayed.

She snapped out of it the moment Ariana seemed done.

"With the security we have seen so far, I'm guessing that from the rooms we haven't yet seen, the living quarters are the least populated or guarded. So let's head out there. After those, I think we'd best move on to the cells. The training hall and the meditation chamber are most likely in use, though not necessarily for the purpose they were meant for. And the entrance is probably as expected, but well guarded.", Ajava's message was a little less confident than her normal attitude.

Ajava started moving through the castle once more, this time towards the living quarters. As always she is being careful not to trigger alarms or walk into patrols.

((Check: 16 = 9 Force Level + 4 Fitness + 3 Stealth -- If necessary, she will use her Life Energy Manipulation to mask her and Ariana's presence.))

[Mercury]

Leaving the man behind, the two Jedi soon found themselves entering the living quarters area. Here there were several side rooms, wooden doors blocking the view inside, around a central area with some wooden benches arranged like church pews in a Highmonian temple.

In front of the pews was a large stone table, with the remains of some animal or another on it, some bones snapped clean through as if a large beast had taken a bite out of it, blood stains on the table and floor surrounding it. Perhaps it was some sort of strange ritual chamber?

Ajava and Ariana could sense there were people in the side rooms, so likely this was a dangerous place to be around. They also noticed a stray datapad though, under one of the pews. Maybe it could offer more information. Getting it would mean crossing the area though and someone might hear so stealth was probably in order there.

[Ariana Danacia]

"Finally a piece of technology... I would love to know what is on that thing and find out what is going on in this creepy place. Do you think you can reach it without waking anybody? I will wait here."

Ariana waited for Shebi Ajava to make her move.

[Shebi Ajava]

Ajava looked at Ariana. "Right. You're here just for the computers."

'Why do I always get a useless dweep assigned as backup', Ajava thought to herself. 'It's like she doesn't even know how to do anything herself. Why can't she just reach out and pull the stupid datapad to her...', she thought as she silently made her way to the datapad.

Once there, she quickly grabbed the pad and made her way back to Ariana. And out of the living quarters and to some nondescript dark hideout.

((Check: 17 = 9 Force Level + 4 Fitness + 3 Stealth + 1 Life Energy Manipulation -- Using Life Energy Manipulation Power to suppress her own life signs (if that is done on Energy, my check is 2 higher).))

[Mercury]

((OOC: Your stealth check is approved))

Ajava snuck across the room, grabbing the datapad before hurrying with her draconic partner to a dark corner somewhere so they would not be caught so easily.

Ariana's skills at slicing proved most worthwhile as she quickly began to investigate the datapad. Its content was quite different from what they expected, though:

The datapad contains books on philosophy, politics and military strategy. There was a lesson plan and quizzes, a training schedule which seemed to include a lot of battle scenario's and meditation assignments.

This was the datapad for a student, they realised, albeit one with a strange focus on warfare and battle, but a student nonetheless. Someone was teaching here!

[Shebi Ajava]

"This gives us at least some idea of what's going on here. Let's have a look at the cell block, after I put back the datapad."

Ajava holds out her hand and waits for Ariana to hand over the datapad, then sneaks back in to place it back the way she found it.

Afterwards she started making her way towards the cell block.

((Check: 17 = 9 Force Level + 4 Fitness + 3 Stealth + 1 Life Energy Manipulation -- Place back datapad. Using Life Energy Manipulation Power to suppress her own life signs (if that is done on Energy, my check is 2 higher).))

((Check: 16 = 9 Force Level + 4 Fitness + 3 Stealth -- Move to next area.))

[Ariana Danacia]

After looking through the information on the datapad Ariana handed it back to Ajava. Ariana did not say anything, she was still processing the information. She only nodded to confirm what Ajava said after which she followed her to the cell block.

[Shebi Ajava]

As they were moving throug the castle, Ajava asked: "So, are you going to tell me what was on that datapad?"

((OOC: It is unclear for me whether Ajava read the information over Ariana's shoulder, so I assumed that I did not.))

[Ariana Danacia]

"The datapad contains books on philosophy, politics and military strategy. There was a lesson plan and quizzes, a training schedule which seem to include a lot of battle scenario's and meditation assignments."

Ariana was not sure why Shebi Ajava had not paid attention while they were looking at the information.

((OOC: I was under the impression that Shebi Ajava already knew the info because she was reading over Ariana's shoulder while she was looking through the files.))

[Shebi Ajava]

((OOC: Yeah... I wasn't exactly clear on the information flow there. I now see that the ST post consistently uses 'them' and 'they', so I should've picked up on that ^_^))

[Mercury]

((OOC: I sometimes use they and them as third person gender neutral singular pronoun, but in this case since the gender of all parties is known, I was instead presuming you guys were sharing information.))

After sneaking around the building some more, Ariana and Ajava arrived at the cell blocks. These cells were really old-fashioned, with rusty metal grates and chains on the wall. The stench of faeces, urine and rotting flesh filled the air, and the two Jedi actually had to resist the urge to add their meals to the mess that was the floor.

There were people in these cells, hiding in the shadows and corners of the cells, or at least as much as their chains would allow. Some were hanging from the ceiling. Others were dead, their corpses rotting between living companions. There were at least a dozen and perhaps more people alive in here...

[Ariana Danacia]

"If there was any doubt that these guys were evil it is gone now, with the way they treat these people... I rather not stay here. I don't think we can simply rescue these people since it will mean a long trip through the snow where they will freeze to death... I vote on checking out the next room that has not so much of a foul stench. How about the meditation chamber or torture room?"

Ariana was ready to go to the next room.

[Shebi Ajava]

Ajava mentally tuned down her olfactory sense so she wouldn't be hindered by the currently impractical urge to lave this place. Making sure she wasn't seen by the prisoners, she moved through the cell block to look around with her Jedi-enhanced vision to get an idea of what kind of people were held prisoner here, and if there were any that seemed inherently more interesting to rescue.

((Check: 14 = 9 Force Level + 4 Vision + 1 Force Vision -- note hindered by bad lighting))

When she had some more details she relays them to Ariana, together with her intent to move on: "You're right, saving them all will be difficult. But not impossible. For now, we still have to explore the torture room, meditation chamber and training hall."

Stealthily moving about, she went towards the torture chamber, given how it was located in the same section of the castle.

((Check: 16 = 9 Force Level + 4 Fitness + 3 Stealth -- ))

[Mercury]

Ajava was unable to really distinguish between the prisoners - they all seemed like wrecks, having been tortured and kept in bad condition. Likely some of them could not even walk properly until they got some medical attention. She'd need to do a much more detailed sweep to find out who was interesting enough to save, if such a choice could be made.

Moving on to the torture room, the two Jedi soon realised this area was "occupied". The lashes of a whip and screams of pain echoed through the halls here.

"Harder!" someone screamed angrily "Don't show mercy!" they commanded. It would be quite difficult to get closer here without alerting those who were 'working' in this place.

Strangely enough, from the layout and wear and tear, this place seemed a central hub in the activity. Ajava and Ariana got the distinct impression that this torture chamber was a key component of the operation here...

[Shebi Ajava]

Ajava started listening for a little longer to try and determine more information by sound by listening to the occupants of the room. She quickly realized that she wasn't invisible and had to move out or get caught.

She moved away from the torture chamber and the cell block, and started moving towards the training hall.

((Check: 16 = 9 Force Level + 4 Fitness + 3 Stealth -- Moving through the castle))

[Ariana Danacia]

Ariana followed Shebi Ajava to the next room.