Tried and True (Episode 17)

[GM Fang]

A bit more work remained to get past the laser trapped room. The next move north would require passing two potential laser turrets. As the team thought of ways to bypass this difficult stretch, Roona pointed out that the broken pillar might be movable. After a bit if struggle, the section was rotated just enough to block the shots from both lasers and the group was able to reach the north wall. Only three more lasers to bypass.

Zavi came up with an idea to have the turret target someone else while he passed by. Xander's suggestion of his remote drone was not viable because the droid was too small. Roona also pointed out that his shield bot could absorb the laser shots. But only three, before it shut down. Eventually the idea was to toss a sufficiently large part of damaged droid to generate the target and Zavi would quickly crawl past along the wall.

The test did not go off perfectly, but Zavi slipped by the laser turret. For the next two, the idea was to shoot the turrets from afar when the wall opened for them to shoot. Eventually the group made it past the laser trap room and proceeded to the hallway and the downward stairs beyond.

As they exit the staircase, they notice the hallway that is entered into is a much darker area than the floor arrived from. The team can barely make out the end of the hallway, at which there appears to be a statue similar to the ones upstairs – a robed figure with hands clasped around an upward-facing sword. As they draw closer to the end of the hallway, it can be seen that the hallway splits off to the right and left into two doorways, although the doorway on the right appears to be damaged.

Looking down the hallway, the group gets a closer look at the robed statue. While indeed similar to the sword-bearing statues upstairs, there is one noticeable difference – the hands are empty and there are scratches and scuffs on the statue’s hands and torso. There are also several blast marks on the floor and doorway behind the statue. The carbon-scored heavy stone door appears unaffected.

ty_temple_floor_sub2_b.png (250.15 KiB) Viewed 46 times

Taking the left doorway, the adventurers come to the library. As they enter this room, it can be seen what appears to be the only working illumination on this floor, and it is built into the base of a large pedestal and highlights the Jedi statue on top of it. Surrounding the statues are shelves filled with bound flimsiplast archives – books. The shelves are massive in height and contain hundreds of volumes.

As you browse through the room, you suddenly hear a booming voice emitted from the ceiling:
“Approach the entry, Padawans, and be Tried.”

The heavy stone doorway to the statue’s left slides open, revealing another passageway. Ymira studies this statue and sees that there is a Jedi Code written on a placard here as well.
“There is no emotion, there is peace.
There is no ignorance, there is knowledge.
There is no passion, there is serenity.
There is no death, there is the Force.”

The group splits up some with Ymira, Xander and Roona moving on, Zavi standing guard in the hall past the library and Irdis searching through the records for information on medical treatises. The three move into the next room, lit with braziers. As they enter, the door slides shut behind, and a booming voice rings out again:
“Trust in the code, young ones."

The room entered is fairly nondescript – empty, with the same stone walls and floor seen everywhere else. Four braziers light up the room, one in each corner. As the middle of the room is approached, a noise is heard behind the trio. The fire light dims, and they turn around, only to see…

Tor Codal! And he is brandishing his blaster rifle!

[GM Fang]

With the menacing Tor Cordal suddenly facing them, the trio in the closed off room of Roona, Xander and Ymira question the validity of what they see. Cordal doesn't talk but walks towards them, raising his rifle. Ymira shouts out that she doesn't believe this is real and it is some sort of illusion. However, she doesn't allow the enemy bounty hunter to get the first shot off and fires. The blast goes through Tor Cordal and he disappears. A moment later, the booming voice speaks out again:
“Consider what you have learned, Padawans.”

The braziers go even dimmer and fade out. A moment later the trio find themselves back in the library, much to Irdis' and Zavi's surprise. The group then decides to try to collect information randomly and stuff several of the books into backpacks. Once more they attempt to bypass the room. Meanwhile, Irdis finds an interesting collection on zoological veterinary studies.

Once more in the room, this time with Zavi joining the previous three, the braziers dim and Tor Cordal appears. Ymira suggest not doing anything and waiting it out peacefully, following the first line of the Jedi Code. The group hesitates and Cordal fires. Ymira is hit and falls to the ground. However, it is only a Stun blast and she starts to recover quickly. The braziers flare up again and the far door slides into the wall revealing the opportunity to move forward. Irdis grabs a few more books which while not medical related may prove valuable later and joins the other four for the next trial.

As the quintet walk into the room, the large stone doors slide shut behind as before. This room is very similar to the first room, although notably no one seems to appear as you walk further in. One notable difference is a small podium near the next doorway, a small podium with the
numbers 0-9 set into buttons on the top. As the podium is approached, the booming voice is heard:
“Padawans, number the stars in the sky.”

The fringers discuss what to punch in to the podium to answer the questions. But no one seems to know what the answer might be. After a few moments, the voice rings out again:
“You may always retreat now, learn, and come back later. The way is open to you."

The door heading back to the first trial opens. The group realizes that this trial matches the second line of the code: 'There is only knowledge.' They begin to discuss looking for books to give them the answer, but as soon as they step out of the room, the door on the far wall opens for them. This is a bit of a surprise. Then Roona says, "Ah, Inkabunga! Hodrudda nobata ka tinka. No one knows how many stars in sky."

Ymira then comes to the conclusion that the only answer was no answer because any answer typed in would be wrong! On to trial number three. Like the previous rooms, when this room is entered, stone doors shut the path behind. This room is somewhat more furnished than the previous rooms, though, as six small chairs surround another stone podium in the center of the room. This time, though, instead of a series of buttons, this podium has only one red button on it.

As the group nears the center of the room, the room can be felt to shake, and then it is silent again. Everyone decides to take a seat, leaving one empty. Moments later, though, you hear there is the sound of stone on stone, and looking around – the walls are closing in!

[GM Fang]

In the midst of the third trial, the group sits in chairs in the center of the room, a pedestal with a large red button on it. Suddenly the room shakes and the walls start closing in. When they reach close to the group, Zavi jumps up and pushes the button. The walls then retract again. However looking at either stone door, neither has opened.

Once more the walls start to close in. Zavi jumps up on the pedestal and sits on the red button! The walls retract back to the starting point and then begin an odd process of moving forward a foot and the retracting. Moving forward a foot and then retracting. Moving forward a foot and then retracting. This goes on for several long minutes as the purple furred Squib kept his butt firmly perched on the red button.

Finally someone comments on the third line of the Jedi Code: "There is serenity". The team decided to let the walls close in all the way and remain calm. As the walls moved forward, it was a bit stressful, but then as the walls touched the chairs, they retracted once more and the door moving forward opened for them.

On the way to the fourth room, something unexpected is seen. It looks like the damage to the temple is more than just structural – it’s geophysical as well. Magma from underneath the surface seems to have bubbled up in to the corridor, and not only is the floor entirely covered, but the corridor itself is perpetually ablaze. Smoke and flames fill the corridor and prevent any more movement forward. Up ahead a closed door can be seen at the end of the corridor.

A discussion takes place over the existence of the magma is possible. There is some skepticism, but it feels hot and the smoke causes eyes to tear and throats to cough. The thought is to try and throw something into the magma to see if it is real. The item thrown into the magma quickly catches fire and quickly disappears into the flaming morass.

More discussion is undertaken and Xander decides to test the hallway by trying to move down the long hall. He places his hands on one side of the wall and his feet on the other, attempting to hold himself up and amble down the hall. Roona covers her eyes. After about three seconds, the heat causes Xander's hands to perspire and he slips, falling into the magma! He immediately catches fire and starts to burn, a sickening smell rising up with black smoke and Xander's lifeless body is quickly consumed by the lava. The group is suitably horrified.

As they try to work out whether this really happened and try to further test the magma before them, Xander himself has a different experience. He fell to the floor and landed on his stomach, knocking the air from his lungs. He rolled over and coughed, catching his breath. Then he saw the doorway at the end of the hall was open. Regaining his feet he carefully continued down the corridor.

Upon walking into the final, smaller room, Xander finds a large stone chest with the Jedi Code inscribed on it. He recites it once more and is able to open it. Inside is a large stone sword. As Xander walks out of the room with the sword, the illusionary magma disappears and the rest of the group sees Xander striding out of the magma. The quickly conclude that this sword must belong to the statue and apparently open a way further. Hopefully to the holocron.

As the sword handle slides back into the hands of the robed Jedi, the telltale sound of the stone entryway behind him opening up can be heard. They attempt to contact Feryss, but the communicator does not respond. In the room beyond, a simple stone pedestal can be seen sitting in the middle of the room. Resting on top of it is a small crystalline polyhedral ball. It's the holocron!

There are also some chests and the group starts to scavenge what they can. There are three ancient scrolls that are found. Irdis decides that the are too fragile to open here. Also a very old and well-made, if plain, robe is found. Now they were about to make their way to the surface and find Feryss. There was concern in their conversations that perhaps Feryss was not a Jedi but a Sith and had tricked them into coming here.

[GM Fang]

Just as the team nears the top of the stairway, the sounds of blaster fire can be faintly heard, and as they ascend onto the main floor, it is clear that the sound is coming from outside. Rushing to look and crossing the threshold of the building, a battle can be seen playing out. A group of Ubese, standing near a small shuttle, lay down suppressing fire in the direction of Lorik Feryss, who is engaged in melee combat with a tall man in dark clothing.

Upon several of the team's exit, Feryss turns around, momentarily distracted, and looks in their direction. As he turns, the blue plasma blade of Feryss’s weapon is parried by the blood-red beam of the tall man’s blade. However, the moment’s distraction is one moment too long. The dark-clothed man
makes a feint at Feryss’s arm, followed by a deadly strike to Feryss’s midsection that ends in the red beam of light protruding from the small of Feryss’s back!

Feryss’s executioner then looks up at the group for a brief moment, and as he turns and gathers Feryss’s belongings, he addresses the Ubese:
“These must be the Jedi’s accomplices. Kill them, then search the temple.” He then boards the shuttle.

There are three of the unnaturally large Ubese and their commander. These Ubese are physically imposing – much more so than the normally svelte Ubese race would be. As the Ubese begin their attack, you can see the small shuttle lift off into the air and head off into space.

Zavi has a plan to lure them into the entranceway and set a Detonator up as an ambush. Roona and Ymira will open fire and attempt to draw the Ubese after them. The gunfight is spectacular as the Ubese open up with light repeating blasters. Roona and Ymira down one despite taking glancing shots of their own and with the detonator in place, Zavi joins the gun battle.

The plan works and the remaining two wounded Ubese rush after the feint, thinking the team retreating. They are caught in the explosion and little remains of them and their belongings. The Ubese Scout Captain is a bit surprised by this turn of events and while he puts up a fight, is quickly outmatched and falls like his marauders.

Worrying that the entity that they believed was a Sith warrior might attack them with the shuttle, they quickly board the Archelon and prepare for departure. R5-D12 has prepped the ship for take-off and it is nearly ready as Ymira launches herself into the pilot's chair and Roona follows next to her. Moments after embarking, a small beeping can be heard coming from a disc-like device in the cockpit. As you approach, a projection blossoms out of the device – it is a hologram of Lorik Feryss:

“Spacers, if you’re seeing this, it means that I’ve become one with the Force. It’s likely that I’ve fallen prey to those indefatigable Ubese, or, even worse, the Dark Jedi that leads them.”

“Please forgive my small deception. I was – I am a Jedi, and it was my great hope that I would be able to find this holocron, but I was concerned that you might be wary of signing on with someone with that reputation.”

“Should I have fallen in battle, know that I will have done everything I can to prevent these enemies from finding you. I will not run, I will not call for you – I’ve spent too long running from my past. I will face it, if necessary, to prevent you from suffering my own fate."

“I hope that, in my absence, you have still managed to find the holocron. My colleague on Mon Calamari, Tmennit En’Dey, will still want to see it. Fear not! She will have your reward, as well. You can find her in Blackwater Settlement.”

“I wish you well, and may the Force be with you."

Ymira tells R5 to plot a course for Mon Calamari, as she lifts the Archelon off the planet Tython. Almost as soon as the navicomputer is fired up by R5, Xander indicates a proximity warning beep. It probably hasn’t spotted the ship yet, but there’s a Carrack-class cruiser in orbit. That could be an impediment to jumping out of the system quickly. That ship was too big to fight, even with the armor and toughness of the Archelon. It was time to run for it!

-----------------------------------------------
Unspent XPS:
Irdis - 5
Roona - 5
Xander - 0
Ymira -0
Zavi - 0

Group spoils (update)
5334 credits

Gear: quick sale value in ()
3 scrolls
robe
Light Repeating Blaster (1125)
Heavy Blaster Pistol (350)
2x Blaster Rifle (450 ea)
1x Holdout Blaster (100 ea)
2x Laser Pistol (200 ea)
1x Stun grenades (45 ea)
Tool Kit (175)
Glow Rod (5)
Brass knuckles (10)
5x Breath Masks (25 ea)