Orchard Retrieval Mission

Sitting behind her desk, Knight Bathori worked on a daily log for the Guild. Just as she is finishing up, her datapad starts beeping. The Iktotchi grabs it and sees she received an urgent message. At once she opens it and reads the transmission.

The Iktotchi is excited, it is the first official mission for the Guild and as she is the only high ranking Sith available at the moment she eagerly accepts the mission. Immediately she replies;

~ Hail to the Dark Council,

I will take on this mission myself, to investigate the ruins on Odacer-Faustin. I shall prepare my ship and wait for the mission details before I depart from Prakith

Signed: Knight Bathori, Seer of Prakith.

... End transmission... ~

She gets up and leaves her office, going straight to her private quarters to get herself to ready…

Combat CS

Name: Ammit Bathori - Seer of Prakith

Species: iktotchi/human

Sex: female

Age: 32

Height: 170

Class: Sorcerer

House: Vahl

Rank: Knight

~\*~

Occupation:

~ mercenary

~ Sphere of Assimilation

~ Sphere of Propaganda

~\*~

Cybernetics:

~ Cyber Jaw: Duranium teeth. Two Back bottom Molars on each side will have a small compartment to hold a dose of liquid. (Dose varies with substance.)

One each side of the two front teeth will be a fang equipped with liquid sucking properties that will stream the liquid into the top back molars storage compartment.

~\*~

Clothing:

~ lv 3 Ballistic mesh weave suit

~ golden bracers equipped with Garrote wire and darts with essence of Quongoosh

~\*~

Weapons:

~ Serapis: alchemized golden Khopesh

~ A purple lightsaber with a long hilt.

~ 6 Durasteel Throwing knives

~ 2 Durasteel Sai daggers

~\*~

Equipment:

~ A belt for her lightsaber and Sword

~ throwing knife vest.

~ Back holster for sai daggers

~\*~

Assets:

~ Starship: “Nebuchadnezzar” Lambda-class T-4a shuttle

~ KX-Series security droid: K-0R9 (Korg) equipped with;  SyntheTech AA-1 VerboBrains, TranLang III communications module. Colour: black, gold, purple.

~\*~

Description of Abilities:

Natural Iktotchian abilities of Precognition and Telepathy.

Marksmanship, due to years of working as a mercenary.

Skills;

{level 4; 14  points}

~ Fighting form VI Niman 1

~ Force Defence 2

~ Precognition 2

~ Postcognition 2 (Psychometry)

~ Telepathy 1

~ Mind trick 2

~ Telekinesis 2

~ Cyrokinesis 2

~\*~

As she got ready in her private quarters the golden horned Iktotchi received another transmission, giving her permission for departure. She had sent K-0R9, her KX-SERIES security droid to the Nebuchadnezzar to prep the shuttle.

~\*~

It didn’t take her long to get ready herself, only moments later she walked up the ramp of the Black lambda t4 class shuttle. Dressed in her brown and yellow leather armour, carrying her finest weaponry. “Korg, set a course to Odacer-Faustin” She told the droid as she entered the cockpit.

She sat down in the co-pilots seat and send another transmission;

~ Hail the Dark Council,

I have set a course to Odacer-Faustin, I shall depart at once.

Signed: Knight Bathori – seer of Prakith

... end transmission..  ~

Then she turned to the droid. “Korg, you have permission to take off" “yes Master” and the droid responds and starts the shuttle’s engines. Ammit will let K-0R9 pilot, as she plans to meditate during their travels..

The Nebuchadnezzar took off and left the Prakith orbit at 07:00 hours as instructed and without hindrance. The coordinates of the Sith Academy ruins were sent and received into the ship's navicomputer and as Knight Ammit Bathori began her meditation, her K-0R9 droid Korg put the ship into hyperdrive. A white and blue swirling vortex of hyperspace travel filled the viewing screen as they embarked upon the dangerous and highly important mission...

Close to 250 parsecs later the ship is pulled from hyperspace as their destination closes in. The Nebuchadnezzar bucks sideways as they pull out and looking on the viewing screen Korg now realises they have come out of hyperspace entering into an asteroid field. Large rocks and chucks of frozen ice surround the ship slowly turning on their collective course in orbit. In the distance they see the ice planet Odacer-Faustin. The dash of the Nebuchadnezzar beeps and various indicator lights flash displaying the imminent danger. ”Bang!” the ship is once again hit by an asteroid shifting it violently sideways.. Korg yells out to Knight Ammit ”Master, you had better come and see this.” on the viewing port, a large ice rock twice the size of the ship is slowly moving towards them…

As they left the Prakith system Ammit retreated into the back, leaving K-0R9 to pilot the ship. The Iktotchi always meditated before any mission, focussing on her Precognitive abilities, hoping to see a glimpse of the future. Hoping to see anything that could prepare her for her task.

She sat down on the durasteel floor, her legs crossed and her hands resting on he knees with the palms up. She closed her eyes, focused on her breath until everything around her seemed to fade away....

~\*~

.... It felt like only moments, her meditation was disturbed by the sound of beeping and loud bangs on the shuttles hull. Startled by the sudden noise her heart raced in her chest.

“Master, you better come and see this” she heard the droid say. Quickly Ammit got up to her feet and rushed to the cockpit to find they had entered an asteroid field. “I’ll take over Korg" she said and he stepped away. Ammit sat down and started to manoeuvre through the field, trying to avoid the huge ice rock that was coming their way.

Abilities used:

Precognition 2 {During meditation}

\*(Knight Ammits precognition meditation shows her glimpses of the future. Broken fragments of trials to come, or perhaps not.. Such as is the nature of precognition it came to her in sensory snippets. She firstly feels deathly cold, and then intense heat.. She hears screaming, a deep rumbling, the gnashing of teeth and a stench so strong it was all she could so but to keep her stomach from evacuating her body.)

Back on deck the giant ice asteroid rotates diagonally as it continues to close, now dangerously close to crushing the Nebuchadnezzar, a rotation shows a slight abnormality in the rock, a deep chunk missing approximately a third of its overall size, previously hidden now shows on it's left side from possibly an impact from another asteroid.  Beyond it, several smaller asteroids only 2-3 foot in diameter come into view and beyond that a clear path to the planet itself.

Ammit tries to steer away but the frozen Asteroid is to close to avoid. As it rotates, the Knight sees a possible way out of the situation.

A huge chunk of the asteroid is missing and possibly big enough for the Nebuchadnezzar to pass over it. Ammit quickly rotates the shuttle to the left, steering it away from the asteroid, hoping that the shuttle will pass over the missing chunk without getting any damage. “ready forward cannons" Ammit orders K-0R9. “weapons ready master” he replies. “Fire at those smaller asteroids” she points at the asteroids beyond the Ice rock, hoping they can clear the way. “yes Master" and the droid starts shooting.

The manoeuvre works but only just, the Nebuchadnezzar rotates left and passes the asteroid, a scraping screech is heard as the ice edge of the rotating rock rubs against the hull on the pass. Once past the smaller asteroids provide no obstacle as the ships weapon system easily accounts for them blowing them into a million pieces of frozen pebbles.

The Nebuchadnezzar enters the atmosphere of Odacer-Faustin and sees a clear area to land approximately 3 kms to the target area entrance of the Academy ruins. A flat surface set beside a cliff face that runs to the right and all the way to the hill of the academy, although too tall to climb safely due to the blistering winds.

The cliff offers some small protection from the landing surface from the freezing winds, ice and snow. The ruins themselves sit on a hill several kilometres away, the hill and academy ruins are nestled between 2 cliffs. The one to the right leading to the landing point and a second that leads to the left for a few hundred meters making a narrow path entry and then around a massive frozen lake that is dotted with small protruding rock formations glowing a bright green and then nothing for as far as the eye can see into the distance.

Visibility is remarkably low but the ship's lights make a barely visible path through the blizzard to the land site.

Korg runs a standard scanner sweep and results are indicating no lifeforms in the immediate vicinity.

The Nebuchadnezzar enters the atmosphere of Odacer-Faustin and Ammit takes it to the target coordinates. A blizzard makes it hard for them to see ahead but as they close in the Knight spots the the outline of academy ruins nestled between two high cliffs. She looks for a clear space to land the shuttle, and finds one approximately 3 kilometers from her destination. “ok, I guess this is it" she says and preps the shuttle for landing. The blizzard makes it difficult to keep the shuttle steady,  especially when the wings fold up. But eventually Ammit succeeded, and switches the motor off.

“around the lake seems to be the safest way” K-0R9 notes as he looks at the computer. “the cliff would be to dangerous with this weather.” He continued as Ammit sheath Serapis on her belt. “what about lifeforms?” she asks while sheathing the two sai daggers crossed on her back. “no lifeforms detected Master, but I do advise you to be careful, the weather makes it difficult to make proper scans" the droid replies.

“I’m always careful” Ammit leaves the cockpit and presses the button to lower the ramp. The icy winds blow up the ramp, into her face, as it opens. “stay with the ship, keep scanning. Any sign of company contact me" the golden horned Iktotchi says. “yes Master, are you sure you don’t want me to come along?” K-0R9 asks as he approaches her. “I’ll be fine" a grin appears on her face, she’s excited to go outside, thrilled to really start her quest.

The icy winds blow into her face, her thick Iktotchi skin is made for this weather so she isn’t bothered by it much. The snow crunches under her leather boots with each step she makes. Slowly she follows what looks like a path, down towards the frozen lake.

As Ammit disembarks the Nebuchadnezzar and heads toward the ruins along the edge of the frozen ice lake she is now safely about 100 meters from the opposite cliff face a small voice is heard tugging at the back of her consciousness.. \*( ”you… you're here, you're here to take me...danger….death lives here Ammit. And I made him..”)

As she moves forward through the shin-deep snow an eerie howling is heard on the winds. She's almost at the edge of the frozen lake now and the path winds briefly along another the base of another cliff face leading to the bottleneck entrance of the ruins themselves. The blizzard seemed to have taken a turn for the worse. As though she was an infection and the planet itself was trying to combat her very presence. She shields her face from the cold as she trudges through the snow and ice, looking across the scenery as she moves she sees a faint shadow drop from the cliff opposite her hitting the snow at the base of the cliff. Then another, then several more again. Focusing hard to identify the falling objects she sees multiple dark masses falling down the cliff face through the air burying themselves into the snow below. Perhaps her arrival or the increased intensity of the blizzard has caused a rock shift on the cliff exactly what she was afraid of and hoping to avoid. She turns back to face her path to ruins and sees more of the same masses landing in the snow on the other cliff positioned in front of her. Although she was a lot closer so she could tell they looked more loosely formed.. Not like rocks. But what?

Slowly approaching the closest of the depressions left in the snow as more of the unidentified objects continue to fall on from various points, her eyes widen as a human head raises itself from the snow and attached to it a human body, no not human…. But something else…

As the thing rises from the snow it's hollow lifeless socks where it's eyes should have been are fixed on Ammit. It was wearing badly damaged pants but it's chest was bare. Its skin was frozen and burnt with the exposure to the planet's ice. Sections of flesh had been torn away revealing exposed muscle and bone, and on its face was a grin, not a smile, but a ravenous loosely formed grin exposed from the absence of its lips and it's jaw only attached loosely by some remaining cartilage. It's left arm was twisted backwards unnaturally presumably from the fall and bone was protruding through it's forearm. It's mouth opened revealing decaying yellowed and blackened teeth, raised its head and let out an unholy scream ”YYYYAAAAAAAAHHHHHHH”

Closely behind it 4 more of the things rise from the snow and make their way towards her.. Behind her she hears more screaming ”YYYAAAAAAAHHHHHH”!

Together they approach Ammit now at running speed their arms outstretched, their lifeless faces gaunt and desperate. Their limbs searching for her, and their jaws moving up and down. As several more fall from the cliff behind them.

Continuing along the narrow path that leads along the frozen lake, Ammit started to sense a presence. It felt like someone was trying to reach out to her mind. The closer she got to the cliffs on the other side or the lake, the stronger she could sense it. Suddenly she could hear a voice speaking to her, threatening her. The shivers went down her spine as she heard it say: °”you… you're here, you're here to take me...danger….death lives here Ammit. And I made him.”°

The storm worsened as she continued to follow the path towards the ruins. It got so bad that she had to shield her face from the ice winds that pushed against her. As she gets closer to the cliffs she can feel the presents getting stronger, she sensed the dangers that lay ahead.

Suddenly out of nowhere something drops from the cliffs into the deep snow. Ammit stops, her left hand shields her face and her right is now resting on Serapis. More shadows drop down into the snow, but the Knight isn’t able so see what it is, all she knows is something bad. Carefully she walks towards the closest depression in the snow, trying to find out what just fell off the cliff. As she leans over to look she notices it moves and she gets shocked when she suddenly sees a decayed human head, with hollow sockets look up to her

Immediately Ammit pulls Serapis from its sheath and steps backwards. As it rises up and can see how damaged it’s body looks, some from the fall, but most because it’s clearly been dead for a while. It lets out a loud scream and then the others rise up, all dead and decayed.. Ammit steps back, she’s not sure what to do, she had never encountered something like this before. Screams came from  behind her as well, the screams she had heard in her vision during meditation. The Iktotchi was surrounded and they all came towards her screaming with their arms stretched.

The Knight saw more dropping from the cliff, they were with too many, she knew she had to get out of there. She had to make her way up the hill to the ruins and started running. With her left hand she unleashed a wave or telekinesis, to push the dead aside as she ran towards them. With the alchemized curved blade in her right hand she started hacking into any of the dead that came close. Ammit continued running towards the ruins..

Abilities used: telekinesis 2

The telekinesis worked and sent several dead flying sideways crumpling them into the side of the cliff with the crunching sickening thud of bone and meat. Two that landed head first lay still on the ground heads crushed, mush spilling out of their cracked skulls.  Another who went into the cliff legs first now unable to walk begins crawling on its hands and arms back in Ammits direction, teeth and jaws still actively moving like it was chewing on something dragging its broken legs behind it. Ammits slashes with her Khopesh are effective enough to stop the dead from grabbing her, hacking off limbs at will although only briefly slowing them down as more now close in on her screaming and desperately wanting to rip her apart.

Ahead is the path to the ruins entrance with what looks like a mostly snow-covered transport ship of some kind buried into the rocks to one side. More dead are gathering and moving towards her on the main path too. Finally, hidden in the snow on the left is an open hatch leading underground.

Ammit runs as fast as she can, slashing any of the dead that come to close but they are with too many. If she gets rid of one, two more seem to appear. “Kriff! This is impossible..” she yells frustrated as she tries to swipe a bunch of them out of the way with telekinesis. The Iktotchi realises she needs to find shelter from the blizzard that keeps getting worse and from the army of dead that she seemed to have awoken.

Continuing her way towards the academy ruins Ammit suddenly notices something hidden under the snow. Its difficult to tell what it is, but as she gets more close she realises it’s an old ship. “Perfect” she says to herself. The Iktotchi continued to follow the path until she found a hatch.

Quickly she turns around, to face the incoming enemy. She sheaths Serapis and with both hands she creates ten ice spikes, each fifteen centimetre long. The cold environment makes it easier for her to use Cyrokinesis. When the Ice spikes are done she uses telekinesis to shoot them at the heads of the dead, hoping it would incapacitate them. Then she turns to the hatch and gets inside, attempting to close it behind her.

Abilities used

Telekinesis 2

Cyrokinesis 2

The combination of force power and resourcefulness pays off, not all the spikes meeting their target but several of the dead falling motionless with ice spikes protruding from their skulls, clearing just enough of a path to make it to the hatch as the dead continue to close in fast. Once inside the hatch door Ammit finds the door heavy and it's hinges slightly rusted, pushing it closed and turning the locking wheel she feels pressure against the door making it difficult to shut.. The dead were on it now and the hatch pushes downwards. It takes all her strength but manages to turn the handle just enough to stop them pouring in over her. She is now clinging to a ladder, in total darkness. Below her she hears movement, and a clicking sound..

In the back of her mind again she hears the voice..”..You're here…. You're here to save me Ammit… Don't give up now…”

She then smells it… The rotten reek of dead decay….

The hatch is heavy, rusted and frozen, difficult to close. The Iktotchi uses all her strength against the door and slowly it moves. “Come on!.. arrrggg!!” it doesn’t take long before the dead make it to the door, they try to push it open again, making it even more difficult for Ammit to close it. But eventually she succeeded and turned the wheel to lock the door shut.

It is completely dark and an awful smell of death and decay makes her stomach turn. It was a familiar smell, the same she smelled in her vision. Ammit understood danger was lurking below, she sensed something moving in the darkness...  As she reaches for her lightsaber she hears the  voice once more. ”..You're here…. You're here to save me Ammit… Don't give up now…”

She ignited her saber, the buzzing sound echoed down into the void. Carefully she lowers herself,  step by step, the purple glow of her lightsaber lighting her way.

As Ammit moves down the ladder the shuffling below becomes slightly faster, she can see the floor now, it's white with snow blown in from the open hatchway, she also sees that the ladder ends about 3 metres short from the bottom. Below her, scattered around the snow pile are several pieces of white armour. And several white blade-like spikes protruding from the joints in the arm and leg armour pieces. She realises these are bones and semi-frozen, slowly decaying meat. She then notices the unmistakable helmet design of a stormtrooper laying side on and empty. Raising her lightsaber she still can't make out the room overall but she notices what was making the shuffling sound… 5 of the dead were down here in stormtrooper uniforms. The shuffling stopped…. They look at her… Helmets still on. She hears their muffled screams…. ”YYYYAAHAAHHHHHHHHH” and they move towards her position. The closest is only 2 meters from the snow below her.

Ammit lowers herself silently, hanging on the end of the ladder the drop is just a meter. Carefully She let’s go, and lands in the snow, trying to avoid landing on any of the armour, hoping she won't make too much notice.

Holding her long hilted lightsaber in both hands she slowly turns, trying to see the room she is in. Immediately she notices the trooper helmets as they reflect the purple light from her saber. The sound of movement suddenly stops, and Ammit now sees at least 5 stormtroopers standing in the room, looking at her. “Kriff me!” she says as her eyes grow bigger. She can hear them scream inside their helmets as they approached her.

Ammit braced herself holding the saber in both hands, making a diagonal slash to the closed trooper. Then using telekinesis to blast the others back towards the wall.

Abilities used:

Telekinesis 2

The dead troopers move towards Ammit as she drops to the floor of the room. In life they must have been here looking for something too. Perhaps the same thing she was.. But had failed where she had survived., .. For now at least.

Gripping her light saber she slashes the nearest storm trooper cutting it diagonally from neck to waist, it shreeks as it's torso lands on the ground flailing about… Searching for living meat… Searching for her! Her Telekinesis works and she pushes the 4 remaining approaching storm troopers back into the opposite wall 30 meters away, they land with a thud, but their uniforms take the brunt and they get back up again. One must have activated a switch on impact as emergency lighting kicked in illuminating the room in a light blue glow.

The room she was in was a large stone and durasteel walled chamber. It's walls were mounted with various gizmos, bladed robotic arms, retracted steel spiked arrows, death weight traps and other things designed to kill. Above her on the left wall was a sign with crudley written writing that read ”Pain Pipe”

In the center of the room was a hulking mass, a giant pile of unrecognisable rotten, decaying meat and bones and she realised that was where the smell was emminating from. The stink was almost unbearable, relentlessly assaulting her senses.. Dead trooper remains litter the floor and past that, on the side directly opposite her, 30 meters away, troopers lifting themselves from its base was a wall about 8 meters high. Small etchings we're cut into the stone like foot or climbing holes. On top of the wall she could clearly see a sealed door.

To the right of the room is 7 iron barred cells, their bars reaching from ceiling to floor. They are each numbered. Number 1 was open, the others that weren't open are empty except the 7th one. Inside that cell she found the answer to the clinking noise… A huge Rancor monster… It was loud and strong in chains that had now been broken dragging loosely on the ground..! It lets out a enormous roar (”RRRRRRAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRR”) upon seeing her. Empty uniforms inside it's cell indicates It had been eating the troopers to keep it alive but in doing so it had also changed. But Ammit sensed a slight difference in it..

She successfully slashed one of the zombie troopers in half but it didn’t stop moving because killing something that is already dead is quite difficult. Its top half tried to reach for her as she pushed his fellow troopers into the wall. Then she took her saber, with the purple buzzing blade downwards and pushed it through its head untill it stopped moving..

The room was now lit, and she could clearly see her soundings. At the centre she saw the source of the nauseating smell, a pile of rotten meat and bones, probably other troopers. The zombie troopers that she had pushed into the wall got back up and approached her again. That wasn’t all, she also heard the sound of chains dragging across the floor, it was huge rancor. It didn’t look normal, and Ammit was pretty sure that was because it had been eating the decaying meat of the zombie troopers. “Are you kriffing kidding me!!” she snarled as she braced herself, holding her saber low in both hands. The rancor came for her, with a loud roar, Ammit had to think fast, and the first thing that came to her mind were the four remaining zombie troopers..

They had closed in at her aswell, with telekinesis she pushed the closest two of them at the rancor, hoping the beast would either eat them or strike them so hard the would be incapacitated..

She hoped the Rancor would distract them for a moment, because that was all she needed to strike the other two troopers. With an upwards motion she slashed at the first trooper, then she turned her body, using the momentum to strike the saber at the other trooper.

Quicky she moved away, hoping the troopers were no longer a threat and she would be able to focus on the rancor alone.

Abilities used:

Telekinesis 2

Niman 1

Using Telekinesis she pushed the 2 dead troopers towards the Rancor sending them crashing into its legs.. She can tell that although the Rancore is changed like the dead, it still has a consciousness somewhat … Not the same as the rest of the mindless hoard trying to kill her. The monster bends down and grabs one of the troopers in it's large clawed hands lifting it up off the ground, towards its mouth and bites it's head clean off. Shifting its weight forward it takes a step and crushes the other trooper under its giant foot with a sickening ”crunch!”

Above... the door of the hatch into the room groans and shifts as the weight of the dead above desperately trying to enter push down on it. It seems as though it's rusted hinges may fail at any moment with a sea of dead flooding the room.

Turning her vision to the other 2 troopers slashing at them with her ignited saber. The blade passes through the first one like butter splitting through it's middle and upwards into the other one's helmet dropping them both to the floor. One dead, the other in 2 halves still moving around gnashing its teeth visible under its semi-broken helmet.

Ammit successfully got rid of three troopers, the last one still moved and tried to reach for her. With her right boot she gave a powerfull kick towards its head, hoping its neck would snap on impact.

Then she turned her attention to the Rancor, who was still very much alive and hungry for fresh meat. Ammit could hear the hatch breaking, the horde of dead were coming in and she still had to climb that wall to reach the door without getting eaten by the Rancor.

With her lightsaber in front of her she slowly moved towards the wall.. the Rancor started fk charge her. Ammit used her mind to connect to the foul beast, trying to over power it with her mental powers, trying to bend it to her will as she continued to move towards the wall..

Abilities used:

Mind trick 2

The downed trooper's head snaps back as Ammit delivers a devastating kick, breaking its neck causing it to cease moving. Turning to the Rancore it charges towards her..

Thinking quickly having sensed the Rancors consciousness she reaches out with her mind attempting to bend it to her will… It works and the giant rancor stops dead in its tracks, staring at her it's head cocks from side to side… Unsure as to why it has stopped and is not eating her flesh already.. The door of the hatch is bangging violently, she has but moments before the dead flood the area.

To her surprise the mind trick worked, the Rancor stood frozen a few meters away. Ammit stood with her back against the wall, she looked up for a moment trying to see the way up when she heard the banging on the outside hatch getting more aggressive .

Ammit heard the hinged squeaking, it was about to break. “ok my big friend..  why don't you go over there” she said with an evil grin. With her mind she send the Rancor towards the broken ladder. Making him wait for his meal to drop in. Meanwhile Ammit switched her saber off and turned to the wall and made an attempt to climb towards the door.

Abilities used:

Mind trick 2

Sabina Molenaar

The Rancor moves on command, Knight Ammits mind trick powers working, still seeming at odds with why it is moving away from the food, moves slowly towards the ladder and hatchway. It’s opening being violently assaulted by dead trying desperately to get in and rip her limb from limb. The familure voice now calls to her tugging on the back of her consciousness… “I tried to stop them, Ammit, I tried.. but they won’t let me go. They love me. I made them. HURRY”.

Turning she looks to find a way up the wall, only it’s randomly placed notches are an obvious way up. Then.. the hatch finally bursts open. Dead falling into the room, pouring over the Rancor like a waterfall of death as is let’s out a primal roar swinging its arms around and stomping its feet at the wave of gnashing teeth and screaming skulls.

Ammit must hurry… time is running out.

As Ammit reaches for a couple of notches above her on the wall, and places her foot on a lower one then she hears the hatch break. Peeking over her shoulder she can see how it is raining men, dead men. The Rancor viciously starts to attack them, for now he can keep them busy but Ammit knows she has to hurry as it is getting crowded.

She pulls herself up and places her left foot on a notch, then reaches with her right hand for a ledge she can grab. Slowly she climbs the wall, trying to reach the door. Behind her she can hear the screams, bones breaking, flesh being ripped off. But Ammit tries to stay calm, only focusing on reaching the door above without falling..

Getting to the top of the wall she is out of harm's way for now as the Rancore continues to battle against the hoard of dead pouring in from above. Her unlikely champion against the death that has been unleashed to stop her on her recovery mission. Getting up to her full height she notices the door is locked. A vid screen is above showing a sort of song or short tale and next to the door a set of odd and numbered keys semi covered in blood. Below it, written on the wall also in dried blood the number 1 with a strike through it….

* a duel of progression -

First entered the Jedi Yoda eager for the advantage,

short legs failing him landing short.

Then came the Kenobi jumping beyond Yoda,

as far as he could.

Sidious flies in jumping higher and further than Kenobi ,

just to show that he can gain the high ground.

Mace Windu jumps and corkscrew spins in, landing to find a peaceful spot,

next to another Jedi.

Finally comes Vader, coming quickly to a stop,

the others standing in front of him.

.

Notes that 1&7 are broken and do not work. ( on the wall. In dried blood the numbers 1 is written with a bloody cross striking through it. )

Answer is 2-6-12-5-8

Slowly but surely Ammit climbed the wall while the Rancor kept the dead busy. She felt anxious, she knew she had to hurry because the Rancor wouldn’t be able to stop the overflow of zombies.

When she reaches the door it turns out to be locked “kriff!” she snarls. Then she notices a screen, and moves closer to have a look. She finds a strange riddle and a keyboard with blood on the keys. The Iktotchi Knight immediately realizes that the riddle must be a clue to find the code for the door. With the screaming, scratching and crunching sounds of the dead and the Rancor behind her she starts to read the riddle carefully..

“White and black keys.. hmmm lightside and dark side” she thinks out loud, realizing that the Jedi must be white keys and Sith black. 1 was her first thought, but then she noticed the bloody scratched out 1 on the wall. She shakes her head “no, that must be 2”

“Kenobi jumps as far as he could. That’s 7” but then she read the next line, saying the Emperor jumped further.. “Kenobi is 6 and Sidious must be 12”

Then she reads the next line. “peaceful, must be balanced.  Somewhere in the middle.” She looks at the keys, 3, 4 and 5 are the ones she should choose from. “5, next to Kenobi” then finally she goes over the last line, starting to feel more stressed because of all the ruckus behind her. “a quick stop. That must be 8”

Hoping she has it right she goes to the keyboard and presses in the code: 2 6 12 5 8 ....

As Ammit deciphers the riddle behind her the Undead continue to pour into the bunker, overwhelming the Rancore who continues to swat at the legion of dead, swaying with the weight of the ones who have climbed on its back and the slipping on the bodies its crushed under its gigantic feet.

2-6-12-5-8 Ammit hears a click and the door before here opens with a hiss revealing a dark, dusty entry , she turns and sees the dead scratching and clawing at the wall trying to get up and further out the Rancore falls, it’s body all but disappears under a writhing seas of bone, rotten flesh and gnashing teeth.. as the she steps into the door way she hears a deathly scream from the army of dead “YYYAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH” hitting the internal lock the door closes and the sound is cut off.

She stands at the entrance, in total darkness. The air is stale, but the rotten reek of death has disappeared except that which lingered in her nostrils.

As the door unlocks and opens she looks over her shoulder, seeing the entire room being flooded by dead. The smell is unbearable, she had just been in time, if she would have stayed longer she would have been dead.

Quickly she steps through the open doors into the darkness. At once she reached for her saber again, infighting it as the doors closer behind her. The sounds of the dead fade at once as the door shuts.

Holding her saber in front of her she slowly moves forward into the darkness. Her hand slides over the wall, feeling for any control buttons, hoping to find anything that could give her some light.

Ammits attempt to find a switch of any kind is fruitless. The glow of her lightsaber shows she is in a corridor, it’s walls are stone, covered in moss and dust. It seems as though no one has been here in a long time. It stretches out in front of her.

As she reaches for the wall she immediately feels it is a cold stone covered with damp moss. The humming of her saber echoed against the old walls further into the darkness.

Ammit starts to walk, slowly and carefully. The dust on the floor crunches under her boots. With her telepathic senses she tries to scan ahead, to feel if there is anything alive, anything with a conscience that lurks in the darkness.

Abilities used

Telepathy 1

Reaching out with her mind Ammit feels no consciousness, her sabre ignited as her only source of light she ventures slowly through the tunnel. Further and further into the bowels of the mountain underneath the Academy ruins. The air is stale, but in the distance something ignites.. A low glare is now visible highlighting a right turn.

As she rounds the corner she sees the tunnel open up in front of her into a huge room, several strategically placed fires have ignited as if they have sensed her presence, their flickering lights dimly lighting the path forward and shadows dance across the stone walls. The floor itself seems to have disappeared entirely and there are large wooden poles sticking up each the size of a dinner plate. A rope bridge hangs loosely in the middle of the room. And on the other side, about 50 meters away, is an archway leading back into the corridor.

Next to her, sitting on the stone floor in the entryway is a golden goblet. Surprisingly it's filled to the brim with water.  On it is an inscription…

”Carry Water To Continue” ”Don't Spill A Drop”

When she walks around the corner she finds a large room without a floor, only wooden poles and a rope bridge. There are several fires burning that light the room, so Ammit switches off her saber and clasps it back onto her belt.

Then she noticed a golden chalice filled with what looked like water, on the floor next to her. The Iktotchi kneels down to read the inscription. ~’carry water to continue don’t spill a drop'~

“this is a piece of cake” she says and gets back up. Ammit walks to the edge and looks down “hey, there’s no ground.. Wait a minute, I've got it. There is a ground. You're making it look like there's no ground, to see if I would be scared and run back” she chuckles to herself and grabs a pebble from the floor a s she throws into the deep, listening carefully to hear when it hits the floor. She waits, and waits but can't hear a thing. “There's no ground here... kriff!!” she says out loud, feeling a little worried now.

Ammit turns to the chalice and carefully lifts it up, keeping it straight, making sure she doesn’t drop any water. Then carefully she walks to the edge, takes a deep breath “stay on the path" she tells herself and with her right foot she steps on the first pillar. It wobbles as she moves her full weight on it “Let's just hope the path stays under me!” She says nervously as she steps onto the next pillar. Again it wobbles making her almost drop the water.. “This is madness" she says and suddenly realizes something. With telekinesis she lifts the chalice in the air and slowly, keeping it steady she moves it through the air towards the other side. This way she can focus on getting across without having to worry about the water.. .

Abilities used

Telekinesis 2

As Ammit steps onto the pillar holding the filled to the brim chalice she feels that the top pad of the wooden stepping pole is slightly soft underfoot, it wobbles slightly, but overall stable. The spacing is enough for her to comfortably step one at a time to the rope ladder and beyond but the wobbling worries her. The First step alone almost caused her to spill the water and she had almost a full 50 meters to go. Below her is the seemingly bottomless void.

“This is madness" she says to herself. Then a solution comes bubbling it’s way to the surface. Using her force power she reaches out and lifts the chalice. Floating it slowly through the air and to the other side.. it works, at first. The Chalice makes its way all the way to the other side but the further it goes the more difficult holding it steady becomes. On sitting it back down onto the stone floor on the other side of the room the chalice rocks slightly, sloshing water over the top of the lip and onto the floor.

The fires around the edges suddenly dim off for a moment. And every 3rd pillar falls downward as if whatever spell had been holding it upright had finally broken, sending it down into the dark. The space between every 2nd and 3rd pillar still standing is a meter and a half, too big for a normal step. The rope bridge also seems to shift with the ropes straining and several strands breaking apart. It still holds in the middle of the room , although much less secure than it once was.

Focusing on the force she tries to send the chalice to the other side, it goes well but the further it goes more difficult it is to hold the goblet steady. “kriff...” she snarls as she sees the chalice move and spilling water on the floor.

When the golden cup is safely on the ground Ammit can focus on getting herself across. But all of a sudden the fires dim for a moment and several pillars fall downward. “no kriffing way" she yells out of panic as she tries to keep her balance in the pillar she is standing on. It only takes a few moments until it goes silent again. The gaps between the left over pillars are much bigger, she wouldn’t  be able to take a normal step..

Using telekinesis Ammit jumps into the air and leaping over the bottomless void and trying to land softly on the next pillar.. she continues to use her ability until she reaches the rope bridge, which now looks more unstable then it already way.. the bridge doesn’t look safe, but Ammit believes if she moves quick she could reach the other side. She steps onto the bridge ready to dart forward....

Abilities used:

Telekinesis 2

Ammit leaps from one pillar to another , the wobbling making it extremely difficult for her to land each time but not impossible, especially on the longer jumps. Her force use works and she now stands on the edge of the bridge about 6 meters in length and secured loosely by 3 lots of ropes. One on each end and one in the middle securing it to the ceiling. Stepping off the last wooden pillar before the bridge she stands on it but it was only a moment until the ropes above her strain and break, the right one snapping completely and sending her right foot downwards putting her off balance and warping the rest of the bridge, she hears the middle ropes start to make the same noise..

Instantly Ammit regrets trying to bridge, as soon as her feet touch it, the ropes start to snap. The entire bridge wobbles and she almost drops off. ~“it is now or never"~ she thinks. And using telekinesis she darts forward,  hoping that speeding up will allow her to make it all the way. She can hear the ropes straining as she moves her weight over the bridge.

If she managed to reach the end she would jump to the nearest pillar, hoping that she would make it. Aiming to continue using the force until she reached the other side.

Telekinesis 2

Ammit uses her force power to run as the bridge starts to break, the ropes breaking and its wooden slats falling loose and dropping down into the void below as she steps on each one only for the briefest moment such was her speed. Ammit sprints at full pace to outrun the collapsing bridge behind her, barely making it as she jumps from the last piece of the bridge, the last rope securing it to the ceiling breaks and the ancient ladder falls down into the black. No noise was heard from it landed, if it did happen to land that was.

Moving with great momentum she leaps across the wobbly pillars towards the ledge above its exit archway. She notices roots had grown under the archway and wound their way downwards hugging the wall below the ledge.  She closes in now bounding over them at a Force assisted pace, yet as she approaches the 2nd last last pillar she missteps on the soft wobbly wooden pillar and she falls forwards. Landing into the last pillar with her chest and the side of her face hitting the wood causing her pain , she throws her hands up and grips the flat top where her feet should have been, her legs are wrapped around it to hold her. And she is about 2 meters away from the ledge and her exit.

Using the force to cross the bridge worked, she was fast enough to make it across before it entirely tumbled down into the void below. She makes her way towards the exit archway, it all goes well until she reached the second to last pillar.

She makes a misstep and lands with her chest on the last pillar and as she slides down she hits her face against the wood.   “Arrgg Kriff!” she snarls in pain as she quickly grabs the flat surface and warps her legs and the pillar. Slowly she pulls herself up, placing her arms on the flat surface. She can feel drops of blood trickling down her face, she must have scratched her face when it slammed against the pillar. Ammit continues to push herself up, carefully place her right and then left foot on the flat surface. Holding her arms ro the side to keep  balance she slowly rises to her feet. It’s only one step until she reach she ledge. The pillar wobbles and quickly she makes the last jump onto the ledge. She picks up the chalice with water, she had spilled atleast a quarter  “kriff” but then she has a plan, she places takes a knife and walks to one of the root that grew from the archway and opens in. The using telekinesis she tries to drain any groundwater from it, the same technique she would use to drain a body completely from its blood...

Abilities used

Telekinesis 2

As Ammit reaches the solid floor edge she notices a shimmering, translucent barrier on the archway. A clear barely visible barrier stopping anyone exiting the room.

She has an idea, sticking her life into the root and uses telekinesis to suck water from the roots.

The root drains, but the water was oddly a shade of pink with swirls of green. After a moment it moves.. Below she can hear something shifting, pulling out of the ledge.

She noticed that the barrier flickered briefly when she tried to drain fluids from the root. Somehow this root, or lifeform was connected to the barrier.

The Knight braced herself, waiting for it to attack her but after pulling itself up the root moved down again, slightly switching. When nothing happened Ammit knew she had to do something, believing the root was connected to the barrier she decided to slice the root completely. She stepped forward with her right foot and in one smooth movement she sliced the root diagonally.

Cutting to root clean off the massive tentacle-like roots rose up sharply into the air flailing around crashing into the walls and the closest wooden stepping pillar.. frantically, as if feeling the pain or threat they waive around dangerously. Ammit has cut clean off about 2 meters of the root-like substance.. It now lies still at her feet.

As Ammit reaches the solid floor edge she notices a shimmering, translucent barrier on the archway. A clear barely visible barrier stopping anyone exiting the room.

She has an idea, sticking her life into the root and uses telekinesis to suck water from the roots.

The root drains, but the water was oddly a shade of pink with swirls of green. After a moment it moves.. Below she can hear something shifting, pulling out of the ledge.

She noticed that the barrier flickered briefly when she tried to drain fluids from the root. Somehow this root, or lifeform was connected to the barrier.

The Knight braced herself, waiting for it to attack her but after pulling itself up the root moved down again, slightly switching. When nothing happened Ammit knew she had to do something, believing the root was connected to the barrier she decided to slice the root completely. She stepped forward with her right foot and in one smooth movement she sliced the root diagonally.

Cutting to root clean off the massive tentacle-like roots rose up sharply into the air flailing around crashing into the walls and the closest wooden stepping pillar.. frantically, as if feeling the pain or threat they waive around dangerously. Ammit has cut clean off about 2 meters of the root-like substance.. It now lies still at her feet.

\*\*\*\*\*

GM UPDATE:

Ammit didn't have to wait long, as whatever creature it was below the ledge slammed two thick root-like tentacles heavily on the ground right in front of her while another two tentacles rose up, one on each of the stone walls they secured themselves to the stonework and became taught. The beast was preparing to lift itself up to face her.

\*\*\*\*\*

~\*~

IC: Knight Ammit Bathori

After her mistake of using her lightsaber, Ammit quickly changed her weapon. Clasping the lightsaber back on her belt and unsheathing Serapis, her golden Khopesh.

Heart racing inside her chest, she waited for one of the roots to swing by. Two thick root-like tentacles slammed on to the ground in front of her, followed by two more tentacles that grabbed hold of the walls. "Oh no you don't!" Ammit yelled and without thinking she raised Serapis above her head. She brings the golden blade down, hacking into the two tentacles in front of her.

\*\*\*\*\*\*

GM UPDATE:

With a single clean slice of the razor sharp curved blade the two root like tentacles infront of Ammit are severed, the metal tip of the weapon sparking along the rock underfoot as it struck.

Something below screeched and thudded into the side of the ledge several meters down leaving only two taught root like tentacles attached to the ledge. The left most root detached suddenly and in desperation to reattach itself to a surface it shot across the the opening directly aimed at Ammit’s head.

\*\*\*\*\*

IC: Knight Ammit Bathori

"Yes!" With one clean cut, she severed the two root-like tentacles. And unlike when she used her lightsaber, the sharp Kopesh made it bleed. And from the loud screech she knew it must have hurt.

Holding her weapon ready she glimpsed at the barrier that closed off the room, hoping that it would be open by now but she couldn't tell and didn't have the time to check as her natural Iktotchi sensed warned her from incoming danger. The creature's left tentacle detached from the wall and came swinging at her.

Ammit was ready with her sword and quickly swung it at the incoming arm, knowing very well that this was going to piss it off even more.

Abilities used

~ Precognition (natural Iktotchi ability)

\*\*\*\*\*

GM UPDATE:

Saved by seemingly her Precognition ability, or perhaps it was just her affinity to the force that alerted her to the incoming threat and allowed Ammit to move in time to counter the root tentacle. A splash of its green sap like blood splattered over her as her Kopesh sliced off the limb with a golden flash of steel. Behind her the door into the passage beyond flickered and its strength seemed weaker.

The one tentacle left attached to the wall starts to slip, the thing below screeching and slamming into the rock face below. But no other tentacles rose up.

\*\*\*\*\*

IC: Knight Ammit Bathori

Green sap splattered over her as she chopped off the third tentacle. Quickly Ammit turned, ready to defend herself from the last tentacle. From the corner of her eyes she noticed the barrier flicker. It was getting weaker but it was still strong enough  to seal off the only door out of there.

The last tentacle slipped and disappeared into the depths as the creature screeched. Cautiously the golden horned Iktotchi stepped to the edge and peeked over. "Guess there \*is\* a floor" she whispered when it went quiet.

She turned around towards the door and scratched behind her horns. She sheathed her blade and picked up the chopped off tentacle. "What if" she muttered as she walked towards the barrier. Slowly, hesitantly she extended her arm, pushing the tentacle to the barriers. Since the creature and the barrier seemed to be connected, she hoped that maybe the blood covered chopped off appendage would be able to go through the barrier.

\*\*\*\*\*

GM UPDATE: As Mab pressed the wet sticky end of the tentacle against the barrier the electrical wall of static fizzled and crackled, its strength weakening even more as it made contact with the liquid allowing the tentacle to pass through but Ammit would feel the electric current as her own skin touched the barrier causing her to flinch. She was close.. but just pressing the tentacle to the barrier was still not enough to allow her to pass through safely. There must be another way.

\*\*\*\*\*

"Aaarggg" Ammit grunted as she felt the current go through her body. Quickly she pulled her hand, and the tentacle back. The horned witch smiled as she rubbed her hands, she believed she had figured it out with her little test..

She grabbed the two severed tentacles and held each in one hand. Then she raised her hands above her head. Instantly the sap began to trickle down her arms, but still she used telekinesis to drain the remaining green blood and began to smear it all over herself. The stink was awful, but she truly believed that a layer of it would protect her and allow her to step through the barrier..

If this didn't work she had one last option, to drink the water and sap mixture from the chalice. But that worried her, she didn't want to get poisoned…

Covered in the creatures blood, she picked up the chalice and stepped towards the barrier.. "here goes nothing" she said and closed her eyes as she reached for the barrier..

\*\*\*\*\*

GM UPDATE: Covering herself with the sticky blood like sap, Ammit reached for the barrier. The electrical current zapped and charged as she would attempt to pass through. Still not shorting out the barrier enough to dispel it altogether but enough to reduce its effects Mab could press on with considerable pain or try another way.

\*\*\*\*\*

IC: Knight Ammit Bathori

"Aaarghh" she felt the electricity to surge through her body. She knew she could push through but it immensely painful. Quickly he pulled her hand back and then glanced at the chalice, at the greenish coloured water.

Letting out a sigh she brought it to her lips "please don't be poisin" she muttered softly. Then hesitantly she drank the contents. The taste was awful, she immediately began to gag but tried to shake it off.

Once more Ammit stepped to the barrier and tried again to get through.

\*\*\*\*\*

GM UPDATE:

\*Fzzzzzzzzzz click\* the barrier overloads as the slender Iktotchi Knight drinks the contents of the chalice. The thick earthy flavour of the green liquid was like eating freshly fertilised dirt as it hit her tongue, however it didn’t seem to have any immediate side effects other than shutting down the barrier in front of her and allowing the pale skinned woman to continue her quest into the depths of the ancient ruins.

As the light pink barrier dissipates Ammit would find herself in another stoned corridor. Not more than five metres ahead, would be a set of old dusty students' robes lying on the ground with nothing but bone dust inside of them. Beyond… a darkened corridor leads the way deeper underground and towards her goal.

\*\*\*\*\*

Gagging, the horned knight looked at the barrier and saw it disappearing. "Don't throw up Ammit" she said to herself as stepped closer. With caution she stepped through, still worried that if she barfed now the barrier would reappear with her in the middle.

"Yess" she said to herself when she passed safely through and immediately gagged again, tasting the awful tasting water..  holding her hand in front of her mouth she gazed into the darkened corridor, noticing the robes covered in white dust. She picked one up, and shook the dust off before she used it to wipe the green sap of her face. She threw the now sticky robe aside and composed herself before continuing her way down the darkened corridor.

\*\*\*\*\*

GM UPDATE:

The old student robes, now sticky with sap hit the stone floor with a loose sounding thud letting a small bloom of dust escape their moth eaten folds of heavy black cloth on impact.

As Ammit made her way down the corridor without a light to guide her way she would eventually walk directly into a stone wall. A dead-end sealing off the tunnel about twelve meters down.

\*\*\*\*\*

"Oooff" with a thud the Iktochi hit the wall. "Uuugh" she grunted as she stepped back and rubbed her nose. 'Why the kriff did I assume there would be light down this tunnel?' She thought to herself and grabbed her long hilted lightsaber.

She switched it on, igniting the purple blade to light her way. Its crackle echoed against the walls and only now she realized she hadn't just hit a wall physically, but she had actually hit a dead end.

"Nonono… this doesn't make any sense" she said out loud. "Did I drink that ooze for nothing?" Just thinking about it made her gag again…. "There must be a door here, why else would there be a force field?" She touched the wall, examining it, hoping to find a hidden door of some sorts..

\*\*\*\*\*

GM UPDATE:

Finally choosing to ignite her lightsaber, knight Ammit bathes the space around her in a low flickering purple hue. As she then looked for an opening she would see that she did walk directly into what looked like a sealed up stone archway. It looked very much like it could have been an entrance but there are no buttons. No obvious leavers or vid screens.. The lack of an opening mechanism was concerning, however one of the stones in the right wall, roughly chest height to the Iktotchi, gave a slightest hint of a reflection as she moved around her laser sword. The small shining purple light was roughly triple the size of a pinhead and only barely visible behind a thick layer of grime and grit. However in the total darkness of the tunnel, it stood out like a single star among an otherwise black sky.

\*\*\*\*\*

"What the" Ammit sighed as she stared at the sealed off archway. She stepped closer and reached out, touching what seemed to be a seam where the door was closed off. She pushed against it, but it did budge. "So that's it? Is this going to be my tomb?" She asked herself. There was no way forward and back was no option either.

But then, she noticed something shimmering in the corner of her eyes.. Ammit turned and saw something on the right wall. "What do we have here?" She said as she stepped closer. She leaned in and blew against the wall, clearing away the top layer of dust, then cautiously she began to wipe away the grit and grime.

\*\*\*\*\*

GM UPDATE:

As Ammit wiped off the seemingly centuries worth of dirt and sediment from the ancient stone wall she would discover one of the wall's rocks had been removed and replaced with a crystal of some kind. It was for the most part a rectangular shape of about twenty centimeters across ten centimetres high and lodged deep into the wall itself as though it may have been part of the corridor's original construction. It was not flat or polished but once cleared of dirt was highly reflective.

Upon further inspection, the Iktotchi would also notice there was also an inscription in the grime covered stone directly underneath it written in ancient Sith.

\*\*Translated\*\*  Look inside yourself and confess your truth. yrotciv rewop thgnerts noissap ecaep.

\*\*\*\*\*

IC: knight Ammit Bathotri

Her eyes widened when she saw the crystal. "Well that's not odd at all" she said softly to herself and scratched herself behind her horn. She leaned in, inspecting the large Crystal an noticed an inscription.

"Look inwards and confess your truth?" She read out loud her voice echoing against the old stone walls. The rest of the inscription looked scrambled, it didn't make sense at al until she noticed that one word 'rewop' was simply 'power' written backwards.. "ah I see what you did there" She focused on the other words and indeed they were also written backwards. "Victory, Power, Strength Passion, Peace.." she said and stepped back to think for a moment.

"That's not right, it should be; Peace is a lie. There is only Passion. Through Passion, I gain Strength. Through Strength, I gain Power. Through Power, I gain Victory. Through Victory my chains are Broken. The Force shall free me…. The Force, that must be it..  that missing"

She took a deep breath and opened herself up to the force. She began to think about her passions; her kids and her life mate. almost instantly there was burst of energy flowing through the force, one she poured into the crystal, hoping it would unlock the door.

\*\*\*\*\*

As Ammit focused inwardly, the electric power of the dark side crackled and surrounded her. The stones of the sealed archway began to shift and vibrate creating a virtual waterfall of dust landed at her feet. But there the stones did not move farther than that. The concentration of force energy was obviously a piece of the unlocking system.. but something else was missing. Something she still needed to do or say in order to open the archway.

\*\*\*\*\*

IC: Knight Ammit Bathorii

Slightly frustrated, Ammit let out a sigh, "why isn't it working?" Shw read the inscription again "hmm look inward then confess your truth… but what truth?" She asked out loud and scratched behind her horn again.. "confess my truth My truth?"

'that I am not really a Sith?' She thought to herself and chuckled, "that wouldn't be very smart trying to break into a Sith academy" she said softly, shaking her head. But she couldn't think of anything else worth confessing. It was something she had felt for a long time, even during training under Pallas, she never really felt like she belonged, she never saw herself as a true Sith.

"Ok… here it goes" once more she tapped into the force and channelled it to the crystal in the wall. Then she said it out loud for anyone to hear "I Ammit Bathori am a pretender, I am not a Sith."

\*\*\*\*\*

As Ammit tapped into the living force and focused its energy into the highly reflective crystal the stones of the archway again began to shudder and vibrate. Then aloud Ammit confessed aloud her inner truth "I Ammit Bathori am a pretender, I am not a Sith."

With this vocalisation of truth the crystal began to illuminate, flooding the dark corridor in an intense bright white light. Then, standing before Ammit she would see an exact copy of herself standing in front of her. The distance between them is just an arms length as if she were standing closely in front of a mirror.

The other Ammit talks to her, not through her mouth but through her mind, as though the words were faint whispers on a breeze.  “You are no Sith. Yet, there is a great darkness inside you..” With that images of The men she had murdered flashed inside her mind as they took their last chilled breaths.. and then flashes of unknown worlds burnings. “You do not know peace, however.. you will know the ultimate passion..” children’s laughter suddenly fades into her mind and then disappears just as quickly.. “You will find strength as you sit on the immortal throne yet your crown shall be a crown of destiny. And through your power the chains of the Galaxy itself may be broken! This is your truth… if you so choose.”

Mirror Ammit raises her hand up to real Ammits face but something was now different… her arm was not normal but gold and clawed. Then reaching out with a golden touch she places one ice cold metallic finger on Ammits forehead and with a swirling explosion of stars inside her head Ammit passes out, the world turning to  black……

When Ammit finally wakes she is lying on the stoney ground of the corridor. Her lightsaber lay on the floor next to her and she is surrounded by darkness except for a low flickering light coming from the now open archway. Beyond it a wooden spiral staircase winds its way up a stone walled shaft leading up to a chamber of some sort. Aged some of the steps are rotted out however and some even missing. Clearly this was not a normal entrance. The crystal she would notice now was cracked in half and its reflection somehow much less clear. Ammits memory of the ordeal is as fleeting as a dream and forgotten in moments should she try to recall the events.

\*\*\*\*\*

IC: Knight Ammit Bathori

Her eyes widened in shock, shimmering brightly as the crystal began to light up. "What the kri.." she gasped in surprise when she saw herself standing before her. The other Ammit confronted her with the past, present and a possible future. And suddenly everything went dark.

When she finally opened her eyes it took a moment for her to realize where she was and remembered what had happened. With a gasp she rose up to a seated position. "What does it all mean?" she whispered into the darkness. " children? Immortal throne? Crown of destiny?" She asked softly and got back onto her feet.

She grabs her lightsaber and ignites it again, the crystal in the wall shimmers and she steps closer and notices it is broken. Gently she reaches for it, tracing the crack. Seeing her own hand remembered the golden arm "a golden arm… was that also a metaphor??" she asked and then turned towards the now open archway. With caution she steps through and gazes up the old spiral staircase. "I guess this is the way" slowly she begins to climb up the stairs, the old wood creaks under her weight, it could break any moment but she is careful.

\*\*\*\*\*

GM UPDATE:

Ammit ascends the ancient staircase as carefully as a well trained thief, each of unstable rotten wooden steps threatening to be her last as she makes her way but none would fall from her weight as long as she keeps moving.

The purple light of her lightsaber was not the only light inside the stoned stairwell however as high above a single lit wall sconce sits next to a closed iron gateway.

This gateway was the only other exit and positioned over the very last and highest of the steps leading up to the ruined academy above.

Hanging above the third last step however, is a two meter long chain with a large iron ring at its end hanging lazily against the cool stone wall. Its beginning or function is unknown as its other end disappears into a small dark round opening in the stone above. Could it be a mechanism to open the iron gate? Or just another of the Dark Lords' deadly traps?

Beyond the gate, the mysterious chamber and another step closer to our adventurer's goal awaits.

\*\*\*\*\*

IC: Knight Ammit  Bathotri

Ammit reached the gateway at the top of the stairs. The wooden steps creaking underneath her weight, she knew it was only a matter of time until it would break. She noticed the chain and glances at it with suspicion, what was it for? Was it safe to touch?

There wasn't much of the choice she'd either had to give it a try or go back where she came from. Ammit shook her head, "no I'm not going back there" she said to herself.

The Iktochi knight reached out to the chain but at the last moment she hesitated, worried it was a trap. "Oh lord… please don't kill me" she mutters and grabs the metal ring. Heart racing in her chest she begins to pull

\*\*\*\*\*

Ammit pulls on the long metal chain increasing its length and as she does the iron door starts to open, lifting from the ground up revealing it's spiked base, but the door opens only as long as she maintains the tension on the chain. If she lets go, the door will close again.. Below her, the step she is standing on begins to break away from the wall. Large chunks of rotten wood falling to the floor two dozen meters down below.

\*\*\*\*\*

IC: Knight Ammit Bathori

When she pulls the chain, the gate begins to rise. "Now what" she thinks as she holds onto the weight, realizing that if she lets go the gate would drop. "Oh kriff" she also realizes that any moment now the stairs would collapse.

Whilst holding the chain, Ammit slowly moves towards the opening gate. When she saw the spikes of the gate, she instantly got an idea. She was going to attempt to put the metal ring around one of the spikes, hoping that that way the gate would hold its own weight. But the golden horned Iktochi first had to see if the chain was long enough.

\*\*\*\*\*

GM UPDATE:

Ammit moves slowly, but the step she was standing on had already begun to break away as she had pulled on the Iron Ring. The Iktotchi knight only barely made it to the 2nd last step as the one she was standing on only a moment before now completely disintegrates. Its rotten remains crumbling to the ground. There was no going back now. The gate ahead was roughly half way open.

\*\*\*\*\*

IC: Knight Ammit Bathori

She felt the second last step giving way, 'oh no' it completely disintegrates. As quick as she could she made it to the last step, hoping it wouldn't break under the quick weight shift.

Still holding the chain and pulling to give it enough slack so that she could slide the ring over the closest spike of the gate. She realised it was probably a stupid move, leaving the door open for anyone to follow her, but she had to make sure this wasn't another dead end first. Besides, if the steps broke under her weight whilst being extra careful, it would probably break instantly if one of those mindless dead tried to rush up the old stairs. So in the end she felt comfortable enough with her decision to leave it open.

Ammit stepped through the gate and ignited her lightsaber again, to light the way.

\*\*\*\*\*

GM UPDATE:

Ammit lifts herself up to the last step and attaches the chain to the bottom spikes of the gate. A sound strategy as the iron gate finds an equilibrium of its mechanism and its own weighty downward pressure, keeping enough tension on the chain to keep it from closing and allowing Ammit an opening to escape the stairwell.

Our short but athletic Iktotchi knight of the Empire now finds herself inside a chamber of sorts, and finds that a single pyre was light inside casting the room in a dancing orange glow. It was not the library, clearly, but some other room of a specific purpose. The walls were once again made of stone but the very top of the walls were scorteched black. The roof was wooden and also blackened across the vast majority of its surface area. The tops of the stone walls were seemingly held in place by multiple thick beams that ran the room's length which also supported the ceiling above them. Similar to what miners would use to sureup tunnels and help prevent subterranean collapses. There was what seemed to be a doorway in the westmost wall.. Yet large chunks of rock from some kind of collapse just beyond it had long blocked up the opening.

The air was musty and old and in one corner of the room the ceiling had actually broken clean through leaving a hole of approximately a meter square opening in the ceiling above. The broken pieces of charred wood were lying directly underneath it, as well as something else. There was something causing a reflection there among the woodpile…The crackling fire of the single lit pyre was the most prominent sound, along with the low hum of Ammits lightsaber.

Ammit would notice of course the flat stone table in the center of the room along with many empty metal cages of various sizes, scientific containers and apperatitus placed around the rooms edges and an eleabort basin placed on a raised platform directly in front of a long since extinguished fireplace. Some cages were closed, some were opened, but all had evidence of dried blood in and around them with several sporting violently damaged bars.. As though whatever had once been inside them had been trying desperately to break out.

Above the fireplace was a huge painting of a man dressed in a tight black tunic. He had peaked, chiselled facile features and his long white hair pulled back tight into a ponytail. The top quarter of the painting was blackened just like the rest of the walls and roof yet his cold, intense eyes seemed to look down on the room with all the harshness of a cruel Sith Lord.

The mantle above the fireplace was covered in black soot, yet an unusually clean square was visible in the center. As though something had been recently taken that had been in place since the time of the fire.

\*\*\*\*\*

IC: Knight Ammit Bathori

With a pleased smile the horned knight glanced at the gate, feeling kinda proud of herself that her idea worked. Still smiling she turned around and walked into the next chamber. Her golden eyes scanned the room, noticing the pyre and wondering who lit it. She noticed the collapsed doorway, the hole in the ceiling, the stone table an altar maybe and cages, the painting..

"what is this place?" She wondered as she walked around, exploring. "A dungeon of somesorts" she said as she knelt down in front of an empty cage, looking at the damaged bars. When she stood up she saw the jars and vials, "or a lab… am I right old pal?" She glanced at the painting, presumably of one of the Sith Lords that resided here.

She stepped towards the fireplace and noticed the clean square shape on the mantle. "Hmm I wonder what used to be here" she said and turned around to look once more around the room, hoping to find the mysterious item that apparently was important enough for someone to remove it. Then she saw the shimmer in the pile of wood and decided to see what it was. Cautiously she began to remove the wood to reveal what was beneath it..

\*\*\*\*\*

The painting didn’t reply to Ammits question, it just continued to stare down at her with its cold, ruthless unblinking gaze. It was, after all, only a painting. As Ammit crossed the room and began to remove the wood she would see the thing causing the reflection was actually a blade. A shortsword. About 50 centimetres long and a circular deep red jewel embedded in its golden hilt. Then suddenly a young males voice rang out from the opening above her head. “Hey, that’s mine!”

If she looked up, she would see a young man standing up in the room above, leaning over the hole and looking down at her. He was dressed in assassin's leathers with a hood pulled up over his head and face masked by cloth. On his waist was a pouch that was held there by a leather strap slung over his shoulder. And it looked to contain the outline of something inside that was small and square.

\*\*\*\*\*

IC: Knight Ammit Bathotri

"Hmm interesting" she said softly when she saw the shape of a blade under the wooden rubble. Before she could actually pick it up she heard a masculine voice coming from above her.

Ammit looked up and saw a hooded figure. "And who the kriff are you?" She asked bluntly but mostly just surprised, "and how did you get here?" She added with genuine curiosity, and then realised he was probably the one that had lit the torches and pyres she had come across coming here. The golden horned Iktochi picked up the blade from the floor and instantly felt the darkness creeping up through her arm. She saw images flashing by of the creator of this place and some of the things he had done with it.

With a gasp she let go of the blade and with a loud noise it clattered onto the stone floor. "This is a dangerous weapon, that doesn't belong to you" she said, glancing up at the hooded stranger. She noticed the pouch and assumed whatever was in there used to stand on that mantle under the painting. "Well, who the kriff are you? And for whom are you working?"

\*\*\*\*\*

GM UPDATE:

“Hey, careful with that..” the figure snapped back abruptly as Ammit dropped the Sith sword to the ground. Cautiously the hooded man looked left then right and then still looking down through the hole in the roof he removed his mask and lowered his hood. Revealing a young human or possibly near-human male whose youthful appearance matched his voice. He had brown eyes, black shoulder length hair and a clean, pale face with no hint of a beard or stubble.

“Shadow Knight Voldur Daywalker is the name. House Tenebris. And I’m well aware that the blade doesn’t belong to me. Master thieves rarely go around stealing their own belongings now do they?” He asked sarcastically before suddenly talking a step back and placing his hands on his lightsaber hilt that was clipped to his belt. He was like a wild bark rat who had picked up the scent of an approaching nexu looking for a meal.

After a few moments he relaxed, if only in part.. “Empire sent me..well.. Lord Draconis did. Other houses sent knights too... Orders are to find a damn flower or something like that on this forsaken frozen lump of rock. If I was a betting man I’d say they sent you the same message?” He made a nervous scoffing sound that accompanied a half snicker.. The boy's head was still raised as he spoke, not even looking at Ammit and his eyes flicked around nervously. “They never mentioned anything about….” His voice trailed off as his mind seemed to wonder and eyes widened in fear. “We came in together.. through a mountain pass to the North that lead straight to the rear of the academy.... then in through what looked to be the old dormitories”. It took a moment, then the boy seemed to refocus, as though suddenly remembering he was speaking to another person.

“How about you? I been down there… gate seemed locked up good and proper.. lightsaber didn’t even dent it..

Up here those…..\*things\* are kriffing everywhere. Please tell me you have a way out.”

\*\*\*\*\*

IC: Knight Ammit Bathori

"Tenebris?" The Iktochi knight responded with a hint of surprise. "Seems the Dark Council has little faith in anyone succeeding in this mission" she muttered and knelt down again, this time being more cautious in picking up the Sith weapon. "Yes, sorcerers of Prakith received the same message" she replied to his question as she got back up again.

"Came in together? You mean you weren't alone?" She asked as she slipped the sword between her belt like it always belonged to her. "I came alone, via the frozen lake, almost instantly came across the dead, then escaped through an underground hatch." she said, noticing his nerves.. "So, you're giving up already? And making sure you don't get back empty handed" she pointed at his pouch and smirked. "There is a way out via there" she pointed at the door, a dangerous one tho. A chamber without a floor, a massive Rancor and hordes of dead. If you're up to it you can give it a try" she said with a chuckle.

"I however, knight Bathori, will try to complete the mission and find that plant" she said with determination.

\*\*\*\*\*

GM UPDATE:

IC: Shadow Knight Voldur Daywalker

“Of course.. Clearly you don't know Sith Lords very well.” Shadow Knight Voldur said in reply to Ammits comment. The young assassin peering down at her, licking his lips and looking even slightly anxious as he noticed Ammit quickly sheath the Sith blade. A droplet of sweat ran down his hairline, ran across his brow and then cascaded down past his temple. “The House Lords very publicly collaborated in a joint effort once they found out what was out here.. don’t know what’s so damn important about a plant though. That Vhal girl said it was supposed to be force sensitive or something.. maybe even sentient? Bantha poodoo in my opinion. If the lords want a force sensitive plant they could easily have that Tollere woman who works at the Cantina. Not that it's a secret mind, from what I understand most of them already have..If you catch my meaning.” The boy snickered again..

“Anyway…. Where was I? Oh yeah, so now that the big secret was out, each of the house leaders sent one of their best knights and of course each House Lord then instructed them in private to betray and murder the rest of the group once the prize was finally claimed. Suppose the Empress really wants this orchard thing for some reason and her Dark Lords are more than willing to kill or sacrifice one of their lowly knights for a chance to lift their standing in the eyes of the bosses.” The Shadow Knight shifted his weight uncomfortably as he stood on alert next to the hole.

"I came alone, via the frozen lake, almost instantly came across the dead, then escaped through an underground hatch." Ammit said, "So, you're giving up already? And making sure you don't get back empty handed"

“You blame me?” he asked bluntly. “To Hell with their codpiece measuring competition. Better off going back alive to ask forgiveness and with something of value to show, than ending up here dead forever with nothing.” Voldur crouched now at the opening between the two rooms and quickly manoeuvred the pouch from Ammits line of sight to behind him as she pointed to it, the bag now hidden under his black fabric cloak. His eyes looked past the Iktotchi and towards the half opened gateway.

"There is a way out via there" Ammit pointed at the door, a dangerous one tho. A chamber without a floor, a massive Rancor and hordes of dead. If you're up to it you can give it a try" she said and laughed.

"I however, knight Bathori, will try to complete the mission and find that plant" she said with conviction.

Shadow Knight Voldur DayWalker's face betrayed him as a look of disappointment then quickly replaced by one of utter hopelessness crossed his face while Ammit explained what lay beyond the gate. “Shack!” cursed the boy. “I guess we are stuck here then... Wait… You said you came alone? That means you have a ship, right?” his look of despair suddenly replaced by one of curiosity. “You lasted this long..What if we team up? You know… Help each other get outta here?”

\*\*\*\*\*

IC: Knight Ammit Bathori

When the shadow knight mentioned Vhal, she raised her eyebrows in surprise. The house she used to belong to, a house she despised, had also sent someone 'I wonder who?' She thought to herself but said nothing about it. She didn't trust this Voldur one bit, and a moment later he said it himself 'House Lord had instructed them betray and murder the rest of the group once the prize was finally found'. No, she wasn't going to turn her back on this shadow Knight.

She smiled when he tried to hide the pouch, it was obvious he wasn't going to give that up. "Seems you are" Ammit smirked at the hopelessness that crossed his face after she told him what she would find if he'd dare to leave the way she came in. "I do. And no one can fly it but me" she responded to his enquiry about her ship..

Next her golden eyes widened and she let out a snort "team up?.... with you?" She squinted her eyes at him in suspicion "you just told me that you were ordered to kill your own team mates.. you really think I'm gonna team up with you?.. admit it, if we find that black orchid, you won't hesitate to try to kill me. " she tilted her head and kept looking at him with suspicion.

\*\*\*\*\*

GM UPDATE:

IC: Shadow Knight Voldur Daywalker

Voldur made a face of shocked confusion as Ammit, looking up at him from the room below, denied his request to join forces in order to escape this frozen hell hole. “You got a hearing problem or somethin’? Haven't you been listening to a kriffing word I've been saying?” he said, his voice desperate now.. pleading with her, tears began to form in his brown eyes as he spoke betraying his young age “I don’t CARE about any Sithspit plants! We've gotta get outta here!.. The others, they… they…

\*THUD!\*

A heavy sounding thud was suddenly heard from above, cutting Voldurs words off cold and the sound closely followed by a creaking groan from the wooden ceiling over Ammits head being stressed under weight. Both sounds originated from a place roughly ten meters from the opening and where the Shadow Knight was crouched.

Voldur twisted his head with astonishing speed and Ammit would see his eyes grow instantly wide with terror. “You…you’re… you're….no…..stay back…..it's me.. IT'S ME..!”  then, an all too familiar sound “YYYYAAHHHHEEEEEE!!!!”

Voldur tried to turn, stand and flee all at the same time, however the Tenebris boy barely made it to one leg when something enormous, red skinned and dressed in a black and bone coloured Sith robe bounded across the wooden ceiling and flashed past the opening, smashing into the young knight, lifting him off the ground and crashing hard into something in the near distance. The sounds of struggling, screams and then the tearing of flesh above all muffled by the blackened wooden barrier overhead.

Then, a second later, where the original thud first happened just a moment ago a second yet lighter thud was heard. And then, a third.. They were here!

\*\*\*\*\*

IC: Knight Ammit Bathori

Ammit just smirked at him when she saw the confusion on his face. She was no fool, she wasn't going to "join forces" with a complete stranger and certainly not one that belonged to house Tenebris. The panic in his voice kinda amused her but that suddenly changed when she heard that heavy thud. She had no idea what was happening other than that Voldur was now even more afraid.

Instinctively the golden horned knight grabbed her lightsaber as she kept looking up at the opening where the shadow Knight stood. In a blink of an eye he was gone and she heard screams.. "kriff" she whispered to herself and backed away from the opening. Ammit didn't have many options, going back where she came from was definitely not an option but staying here wasn't the best of ideas either. Either she'd wait, hoping whatever was up there would move away without noticing her, or she would be bold and face danger head on…

Ammit closed her eyes for a moment and took a deep calming breath. Clearing her mind before making a choice. Meanwhile she could still hear the sound of flesh tearing and growls.. when she opened her eyes she made her choice, she was going up while they were busy tearing up the tenebris boy.. quietly she moved towards the hole and then using the Force she jumped up and ignited her saber. The purple blade would lit the room up, revealing the gruesome scene.

\*\*\*\*\*

GM UPDATE:

The room above seemed to be the remains of a huge burnt out scroll storage vault. The restricted section of the old academy library perhaps. The room was much larger than the small chamber below and its walls and entrances were all blackened and severely damaged from an ancient fire that destroyed the site a thousand years before.

To one side of the room pressed hard up to a wall of bare dirt that indicated they were still below ground level, was a massive tree trunk that seemed to have grown from the exposed dirt wall and stretched up through another large hole in the roof. It's length disappeared into what was presumably another room above. Its bare roots sprouted from its base spreading every which way, covering the majority of the floor on that side of the room.

Its bark was also black, indicating it was already here when the place went up in flames but several small green sprouts dotting its trunk indicated perhaps it was somehow still alive.

The opening above where the tree disappeared into, looked like the only opening large enough that the Shadow Knight and whatever had followed him may have used to enter the space.

~~~~

As Knight Ammit sprung from the room below and into this room, she would find herself in the middle of three ex-Knights of the Empire. Behind her, a large red skinned beast which looked like Knight Mir, The Nightmare of Feros slurped and gorged itself ravenously on the remains of the late Shadow Knight Daywalker who was now slumped against the wall. He didn't notice the Sorcerer of Prakith, but who knows when he would be done. Next to him, less than two metres away from the hole in the floor lay the bag Voldur had wrapped around him. Strap snapped, contents still inside it as it lay discarded on the ground.

In front of her were two others, one donning the full body armour suit of Knight Crimson of Cruror. An open gangrenous wound on his left forearm where a piece of his metallic armour had been somehow removed and his flesh exposed. And the other, a slight pink skinned Zeltron dressed in Vhal robes, a dark cloak and a golden pendant around her neck.. It was the soon to be knighted Apprentice Tinca Bratex. Or at least, what was once Tinca Bratex. The young attractive assassin was now a husk of her former self. Her jaw was slack and her blood stained skin seemed to hang loosely from her facial bones. Her eyes were now sunken and her pupils turned black devoid of all her former humanity.

Ammit wouldn't be able to see the males faces, but she could see Tinca and Tinca saw her… The Vhal girl was smiling a sadistic, twisted grin that was as inhumanly animalistic as it was a look of complete insanity. One that exposed her yellowed teeth and grey tongue. The thing that was nce Tinca Bratix, standing just five metres away from Ammit, started moving towards our hero, followed closely behind by the heavily armoured knight Crimson.

\*\*\*\*\*

IC: Knight Ammit Bathori

With her blade ready, Ammit landed in the large chamber above. Smell of burned wood, dirt, and fresh blood stung in her nostrils as she gazed at the scene she had just dropped into. She noticed Voldur against the wall, being feasted on by a red skinned reptilian. Then she noticed the Zeltron female coming her way, "oh my miss Bratex" she said softly, recognizing the pink skinned woman "guess that duel the death is kinda pointless now" she added with smirk as obviously by the looks of it, Tinca was already dead. Part from gurgling growls, Tinca said nothing as she approached the Sorcerer.

Ammit launched herself forward, first she slashed the purple saber at the Zeltron's extended arms, in an attempt to chop them off before they could touch her. Then using the Force she pushed Tinca back against the armored knight behind her in an attempt to slow them down while she focused on the large red skinned reptilian.

If successful, she would turn towards the reptilian, he was the largest of them all, and if he hadn't been preoccupied with Voldur's corpse he'd probably be a challenge to face. So, using the force once more, Ammit would jump up, high enough to be able to see the reptilian's neck. With an horizontal slash she attempted to chop his entire head off

\*\*\*\*\*

GM UPDATE:

Ammits slash severed the Vhal girls' greyish pink arms off at the elbows, the appendages falling limply to the ground yet she did not scream or cry out in pain.

Ammits follow up force push sent the handless apprentice back hard into knight Crimson, who was stopped in his tracks then staggered backwards as per her design.

However, the comotion seemed to be enough to finally gain the attention of Knight Mir who had now turned from the messy near unrecognisable remains of the Shadowknight. He turned to see our hero flying through the air and the self proclaimed Nightmare of Feros reached a thick, bloodied and clawed hand up to grab her right out of mid air.

Ammits jump and sabre slash at the red skinned brutes neck struck flesh once more, but it was yet another hand and as she lands, knight Mir, drenched in the warm blood of Voldur begins to rise up off the ground and reaches for her with another massive arm.. The same black crazed look in his reptilian eyes. As he sees his next meal, he opens his mouth exposing the razor sharp daggers that were his teeth he roars loudly.. A blood curdling, animalistic sound “YYYRRRRRRAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHH!”

\*\*\*\*\*

IC: Knight Ammit Bathori

Part of her plan worked, she injured Bratex and successfully pushed her back into the Knight. But the other part of her plan wasn't as successful. The red reptilian had turned around  by the time Ammit was midair. It was then when Ammit finally recognized him "Mir".

She had missed his neck and only managed to chop off one of his arms. Ammit jumped back to avoid his other arm. "Wow, Mir… I guess business was slow at your restaurant" she said as she took a defensive stance. "Look, I don't wanna be on the menu" Ammit added and with her purple saber she jabbed forwards, at the same time she reached for Serapis.

Following the jab she pivoted on her feet and sweeped the sharp curved blade of the golden Khopesh, horizontally at his waist..

\*\*\*\*\*

GM UPDATE:

Die roll result: 1, cut Mir in half at the waist. 2, lodge Khopesh in Mirs waist. 3, Miss.

(\*result 2.)

Ammit, narrowly avoiding the Iron Knights deadly claws, jabbed her lightsaber at Mir and reached for her curved blade. The purple tip of its plasma beam burned a black hole through the beast's robes setting his scaley flesh and the surrounding fabric alight as Mir lunged forwards towards her. The dragon-like beast was now at full height of over six feet of deep red, hulking brutish muscle.

Ammit pivoted, sweeping her golden blade at the undead beast's waist but unlike the stormtroopers she encountered in the pain pipe, these undead were freshly infected. Their bodies had only just begun the increased decomposition phase of their horrific fates.

Ammit swung with the fluid momentum and grace of an assassin but without suitable strength behind her attack, the khopesh sliced through Mirs robe, entered the beast's side but then stopped halfway before slicing him in two. The golden curved blade lodged deep into the undead knight's waistline.

Mir turned sharply if not awkwardly due to the golden blade stuck inside him, carving at his internal organs with every movement. Mir was ravenous, swinging at our hero with an invisible claw that was now lying severed off close by on the ground. Clearly the best had not registered, its arm was now missing.

Missing our hero, Ammit was sprayed with a jet of blood droplets from the large knight's stub, however as he spun with the momentum of the attack, a thick red scaled tail suddenly flicked out from under his robes aimed directly at Ammit. Threatening to knock her across the room.

Several metres away, the other two knights were recovering from the collision. One of them, which must have been Knight Crimson from behind an armoured helmet screamed “AAAIIIIIIYYYYYEEEEEEl!!!!”

\*\*\*\*\*

"Kriff" she exclaimed when the Khopesh got stuck 'you're as tough as you look' she thought as her precognic senses picked up incoming danger. Quickly she jumped backwards, avoiding the reptilian's tail but leaving the Khopesh lodged in Mir's side.

Her plan to take out the big beast first had failed and now the other two were back on their feet as well. But remembering the hole in the ground she got a plan. She backed away, moving closer to the edge hoping that Bratex would at least follow because without hands, climbing up would be difficult. "This way please" she said trying to lure them to the edge. Her plan was to jump aside on the last moment if they'd come charging to her.

She held her saber ready, and when she glimpsed down she saw the Sword she had taken from Voldur. She grabbed it from her belt and smirked "let's see how sharp you are" she spoke as if she expected the sword to talk back.

Abilities used:

~ Precognition (natural Iktochi ability)

\*\*\*\*\*

GM UPDATE:

Mir whirled, turning 180 degrees as he missed, trying to separate Ammits head from her neck with a clawed hand that was no longer attached but instead spaying her lightly with his infected blood. His tail flicked out as a result, looking to swat Ammi across the room but our hero’s Iktotchi natural precognitive ability gave her ample warning of the red leathery strike and somehow she successfully evaded the attack.

Ammit moved in front of the broken opening of the floor, placing herself as the bait in a trap made for the other two undead sith.

Tinca charged first, amputated arms outstretched followed closely behind by Dread knight Crimson in his full armour.

Beside her, Mir also lunged towards her position, forcing Ammit to defend from two sides at once. If Ammit was able to move from the hole Knight Crimson and Apprentice Tinca would fall down the hole. However.. no one yet knew if these undead knights could use the force or not.

\*\*\*\*\*

IC: Knight Ammit Bathori

In the panic she hadn't even noticed the blood on her face until she felt it trickling down her forehead. "Kriff!" the knight exclaimed, knowing the risk. Ammit wanted to wipe it off but with the three undead Sith moving her way she couldn't let anything distract her.

She was pleased to see Tinca responding first. "Yeah you pink skinned trollope, this way" she said but from the corner of her eyes she saw Mir also lunging forward. Holding her sabre in her right hand and the Sith Sword in her left, Ammit attempted to dodge the large reptilian by quickly dropping down and rolling forward under his arms.

If successful, she would get back up in the momentum, turn and attempt to force push Tinca and the Knight down the hole..

\*\*\*\*\*

GM UPDATE:

Ammit successfully rolled out of the way of the undead nightmare of Feros, avoiding his single handed attack that sent him grasping at thin air and roaring, his large red foot unknowingly kicking Voldurs’ bag that was still on the ground down the hole in the floor. Its leather strap however was seemingly caught on the edge of a broken blackened floorboard, possibly saving the unidentified item inside from crashing to the ground below.

Knight Mir’s dagger-like teeth gnashed with the anticipated meal to come and his severed limb spread a mist of dead man's blood onto the wooden floor around him as he moved. It wouldn't be long before he turned back to face our hero once more.

Ammit, coming out of her athletic roll, stood up quickly facing her approaching adversaries, her force push hitting Tinca square and once again sending her toppeling. This time, the Vhal Apprentice was pushed downwards instead of backwards and she fell down into the hole, her handless arms failing to stop her as she joined the late Shadow Knights leather bag.

Behind her, the armoured Dread Knight Crimson who was also in the line of Ammits force push unexpectedly jumped, and jumped high. It was a force assisted jump that sent him skywards, smashing him right through the ceiling and into the room above leaving Ammit alone in the burnt out scroll room with Knight Mir.

Clearly the force still resonated with the beasts, however they seemed to be unable to control it. Below, the thing that was Tinca Bratex screamed “AAAYYYYYIIIIIEEEEEEEEEEE!!!”

How would Ammit proceed now this new piece of knowledge was revealed?

\*\*\*\*\*

IC: Knight Ammit Bathori

Safely out of the way, using her sleeve Ammit quickly wiped away the infected blood of her face. She successfully had managed to push Bratex down the hole however Mir and the Knight proved to be a bigger challenge.

"Ok, that was unexpected" she said to herself when the armored knight jumped through the ceiling. She now knew they still were force sensitive but due to being dead didn't have full control. At least he was out of the way for a moment, allowing her to focus on the red reptilian tank..

However before she dealt with him, she had notice Voldur's bag being kicked across the floor. She extended her hand and with telekinesis she attempted to grab it before it would slip and fall…

Knowing that the Force was still strong in them, Ammit knew that she had to make sure they would be stopped. But killing something that is already dead is quite the challenge. The golden horned Iktochi glanced at Mir, and sheathed the Sith blade before taking her lightsaber in both hands. She had to be quick. She dashed towards him and dropped down at the last moment, using the blood covered floor to slide towards the Knight in an attempt to slash through his legs. She hoped that once he was on the floor she could finally end his suffering..

\*\*\*\*\*

GM UPDATE:

Ammits attempt to pull the bag back out of the hole through telekinesis was partially successful, the pouch resurfaced from the dark hole intact and the hidden item still secured inside.The broken strap however that was caught on the floorboard stopped the bag from flying towards the young seer of Prakiths’ hand. Instead, the force pull caused the bag to remain suspended in mid air before falling to the wooden, bloody floorboards.

Ammit sheathed her blade and rushed at the one handed Mir, the undead nightmare of Feros intern ran at her, golden Kopesh blade still deeply lodged inside his midriff. He was fast, but Ammit ducked and slid at the last moment, her lightsaber slashing through his enormous legs severing his muscles and tendons leaving his legs in a bloodied mess of charred exposed bone and barely intact scaly flesh. They were still attached, it seemed, but held on by a few remaining flaps of Mirs extremely tough skin and now as useless as his severed arm that lay several feet away.

Mir instantly fell forwards, his tatters of legs now unable to hold up his own weight and he fell heavily to the floor with a crash and audible cracking of breaking wood. The indifference in his arm length made him turn as he landed, his thick tail once again whipped out to the side and smashed into the ground right next to Ammit. She would feed the wind rush past her face as it slammed downwards with force, breaking open several floor boards and creating another new opening to the room below.

Ammit could possibly use this to her advantage, but could the already weakened floor support any more breaks before collapsing entirely? And there was still the mission.. The remaining items and of course Dread Knight Crimson to consider..

\*\*\*\*\*

IC: Knight Ammit Bathori

"Kark!" She exclaimed when the strap of the bag got caught on the floorboard. However she couldn't do anything about it at the moment as the hulking reptilian came charging at her.

The golden horned knight attempted to use one of her signature moves on him and with succes. Ammit slices the purple blade of her sabre through his legs causing the red skinned tank to fall onto the floor.

"Uh oh" she said when she heard the floorboards breaking. Ammit cautiously got back up, worried that the floor might give way under her weight. She could destroy the floor even more, making Mir fall through, but Ammit felt that was just too risky. Tinca was still down there after all… instead the sorceress moved towards Mir, lightsaber still in her hand.

Making sure to stay out of reach of his only arm and massive tail she moved to where his head was. "Sorry Mir" she said raising the sabre over her head "I guess this goodbye… I hope" she said and struck the purple blade downwards, in an attempt to sever his head from his torso..

If successful she would retrieve the pouch, securing it around her belt and then finally pull her Khopesh from his side.

\*\*\*\*\*

GM UPDATE:

Ammit moved over towards Mir after successfully disabling the Iron knight's legs, the glow of her lightsaber basking her blood-covered face in a purple hue as she raised her weapon then striking downwards to deliver the ultimate blow. Severing the beast's head from its shoulders. The Feros knight's infected blood oozed from the wound and dripped down through the cracks of the floor, trickling into the room below. Mir's large head twisted to the side and spun slightly as it separated, his huge jaws still exposing his dagger-like teeth as they continued to move up and down even after the decapitation.

As Mab moved over to retrieve the bag from the original opening in the floor, she would hear a faint crackling coming from the room below as well as the occasional rumble of something exploding down there.. Like bursts of build up energy being released.. More worryingly perhaps, the smell of smoke was now beginning to waft up through the floorboards mixing with the scent of blood, charred flesh and the ozone from her lightsaber.

It was now.. The voice that had spoken to her as she first landed on the frozen wasteland spoke once again. “Hurry… Ammit……he won't let me die, why won't he let me die… I'm afraid.”

\*\*\*\*\*

IC: Knight Ammit Bathori

"What the…" the knight responded when she heard the noise coming from below. Then she picked up the scent of smoke making her nostrils flare. "Uh oh" she responded, something was on fire and that meant she had to get out of there fast.

Then she heard it again, that strange eerie voice, calling out to her making shivers go down her spine. "No time to waste" she told herself and looked for a way out.. looking up she noticed the hole in the ceiling, the way the Knight went through. "Guess that's where I'm going" she said softly and moved forward. She kicked Mir's head down the hole and prepared herself for a jump up to the next floor.

Sabre ready, glancing up she tapped into the force and pushed herself up, attempting to jump..

\*\*\*\*\*

Due roll result: success with minor wound.

Ammit’s force jump succeeded and the young Iktotchi exploded through the broken hole in the ceiling. Pieces of the jagged and splintered wood tearing a rip in her right sleeve and pant leg, scratching her as she made it through. A mild annoyance at best.

Above, Ammit would find herself finally in the site of a once great library. There was natural light in here from several small round windows dotted along the upper walls. Blackened book shelves lined the equally blackened walls with volume upon volume of damaged texts, however surprisingly the sooted floor was perfectly clean of any fallen literature. High above five large red crystal chandeliers hung from the high ceiling, there was a sixth, but it lay on the ground in pieces several metres away.

In the centre of the room, protruding through the floor was the tree that grew from underneath, not only its upper trunk, but dozens of thick branches and vines also that reached a full fifteen metres up into the air and branched outwards. Its bark was charred yet dotted with the same green sprouts Ammit saw on its lower half. Indents several metres up the trunk could almost be mistaken as being the shape of a warped and mangled face.

Nearby the tree, standing next to a bookshelf a dark figure loomed. Armoured and murmuring… It's body literally shaking with anticipation having picked up the scent of fresh blood.. The Dread Knight! It ran at Ammit with force assisted speed, screeching from under its helmet “YYYAAAAIIIIEEEEEE!!!” our hero would need to defend herself or risk being run over.

Force powers used - Force speed - 2

\*\*\*\*\*

IC: Knight Ammit Bathori

"Aargh!" The knight grunts in pain as the splintered wood cuts through her clothes and scratches her skin. When she landed in what seemed to be a library she glanced down at her arm and leg..The damage wasn't severe, but knowing that most of those still wandering about were blood craving zombies so it wasn't ideal to have any wound, big or small.

And she was right, not long after she made her entrance she noticed the armoured knight next to what seemed to be a massive tree trunk at the centre of the room. And it noticed her as well. Screaming the knight came running at her, he was fast, too fast for Ammit to think of a plan. The golden horned Iktochi rolled to the left, in an attempt to dodge the attack. If successful she'd get back onto her feet and create some distance between her and the Knight.

She'd then used the force to run towards the fallen chandelier, she'd jump, using the bend frame as steps. Finally she would jump high in an attempt to grab hold of one of the still hanging chandeliers, praying that it would hold her weight.

Force Ability used

Speed & Jump

\*\*\*\*\*

GM UPDATE:

Ammit rolled to the left, the undead knight standing on her left calf and stumbeling forwards as he came just millimetres from crashing into her, the pain of the much heavier knight standing on her would register.. but was likely manageable.. The Iktotchi knight stood, out of harms way for a moment at least, then used the force to run across the floor of the library before looking up and quickly jumping off the damaged chandelier that lay on the floor and barely grabbing onto a still hanging one high in the air.

As Ammit was still holding her lightsaber, her hand slips as she grasps for the chandelier and she is now finding herself holding on by just one arm, the dozens of blood red coloured crystals clinked together as the large, decorative light swung back and forth. The support cables groaning under the stress. Ammit would need to do something with her weapon if she wanted to grab onto the ancient light fitting with both hands… and secure her grip. On top of this, drips of blood were now trickling from her arm wounds. The warm red liquid landing on knight Crimsons helmet as he stood directly underneath her, his head tilted backwards… arms outstretched and searching... And his hungry, desperate eyes fixed solely on our hero above.. Yet below his feet, the first wisps of thick black smoke began to rise up through the floorboards.

From this height, if Ammit could swivel her head enough… She would see a large globe-shaped lump of dried amber coloured sap surrounding what looked to be a dark coloured, orchard looking flower attached to the upper part of the tree trunk that stood in the centre of the room. The flower was two metres above the face-like indents as though it was a disgusting bulbus boil on the forehead of a huge wooden Cloddogran with several branches and vines surrounding the trapped flower.. Almost if it had been placed there on purpose by someone or something.

\*\*\*\*\*

IC: Knight Ammit Bathori

The weight of the undead knight on ber calf caused a sharp pain shoot through her lower leg. "ugh!" She grunted as she tried to get away from him. Still, despite the pain she managed to run and jump for the chandelier. However, because she had to respond so fast to the dread Knight that she had completely forgotten that she was still holding her lightsaber.

"Oops" Ammit said to herself as she dangled from one arm from the chandelier. Glancing down she saw the dreadful sight of the hungry undead Knight as he outstretched his arms ready to catch her if she'd fall. Ammit lifted the switched off lightsaber up and secured the hilt in her mouth. Biting down, not hard of course or her cyber jaw would snap it in half, Ammit grabbed hold of the chandelier with now both her hands.

Carefully, not wanting to swing the old chandelier too much, she climbed up and then used the opportunity to have a proper look around. She took the lightsaber from her mouth again.

Not only could she smell she could now see the wisps of smoke curl up through the cracks in the floor. "That's not good" she muttered to herself as she glanced around the old Library. Then her golden eyes fell on the large orchid and the strange face like indentations in the trunk "not creepy at all"

Cautiously she moved around the chandelier, closer to the tree. The large Orchid flower was trapped. Something told her she had to free it, although she wasn't really sure how or even why…

\*\*\*\*\*

IC: Knight Ammit Bathori

The weight of the undead knight on ber calf caused a sharp pain shoot through her lower leg. "ugh!" Sge grunted as she tried to get away from him. Still, despite the pain she managed to run and jump for the chandelier. However, because she had to respond so fast to the dread Knight that she had completely forgotten that she was still holding her lightsaber.

"Oops" Ammit said to herself as she dangled from one arm from the chandelier. Glancing down she saw the dreadful sight of the hungry undead Knight as he outstretched his arms ready to catch her if she'd fall. Ammit lifted the switched off lightsaber up and secured the hilt in her mouth. Biting down, not hard of course or her cyber jaw would snap it in half, Ammit grabbed hold of the chandelier with now both her hands.

Carefully, not wanting to swing the old chandelier too much, she climbed up and then used the opportunity to have a proper look around. She took the lightsaber from her mouth again.

Not only could she smell she could now see the wisps of smoke curl up through the cracks in the floor. "That's not good" she muttered to herself as she glanced around the old Library. Then her golden eyes fell on the large orchid and the strange face like indentations in the trunk "not creepy at all"

Cautiously she moved around the chandelier, closer to the tree. The large Orchid flower was trapped. Something told her she had to free it, although she wasn't really sure how or even why…

\*\*\*\*\*

GM UPDATE:

From the safety of her chandelier,  Ammit looked out across the slowly smoke filling library to the odd looking tree that protruded through the floor and spotted the Orchid flower trapped in a protective cocoon of amber sap. Suddenly below her, a ripple in the force… the armoured knight Crimson, in his current state of post mortem and perhaps unaware of the fact he had done it, much like his earlier force jump and Knight Bratix’s force flame, pulled on the chandelier our hero was standing on with the assisted power of the force..

Above Ammit, cracks in the ceiling instantly spread outwards from the light fittings’ ceiling mount like a steadily explanding spiders web of impending doom. The metal frame jerked downwards sharpy several inches as if it was about to crash to the floor, but then stopped suddenly. There was no telling how long the crystal fitting would last before it fell and joined the already smashed one which lay on the library floor below.

Unbeknown to Iktotchi knight, below the cover of the low lying smoke haze… several vines stemming from the enormous tree began to slither across the floorboards towards her location.

\*\*\*\*\*

IC: Knight Ammit Bathori

"Whoa" Ammit Exclaimed when she felt the pull on the chandelier. \*Ccrrrack\* her eyes widened when she heard the ceiling cracking under the weight. "Oh ooh, that's not good" she gasped and realized she had to act quickly.

With use of the force, Ammit attempted to jump to another chandelier. If successful, she would turn and then use force pull herself to pull the chandelier she had been standing on down. Hoping it would crush the undead Knight beneath her.

Having to act so quickly, she Of Course wasn't aware of the vines that creeped across the floorboards beneath the thick smoke. However, she did have a feeling danger was coming her way..

Ability used

~ Force Jump

~ Force pull (if jump is successful)

~ Precognition (natural Iktochi ability)

\*\*\*\*\*

GM UPDATE:

Dice roll for Force Jump 4 sided dice… successful: 1,3&4 unsuccessful: 2   dice roll result = 2! (\*sorry)

Ammits danger sence was sounding out like a klaxon alarm directly in her subconscious, and for good reason. Our hero jumped, desperately looking for another chandelier to land onto… however, she had seemingly been drawing on the force time and time again with no time to rest or rejuvenate since the moment she set foot onto this frozen hell hole… and this time, perhaps even for the first time in her blossoming career… the young Iktotchi’s force powers failed her, and just two meters short of reaching the next safety point, fifteen meters up into the air, she began to free-fall to the ground below..

Behind her, the damaged crystal fitting crashed to the ground, its secure mounting point ripping off a large piece of the ancient roof and creating an opening in the ceiling which revealed the Odecer Faustin’s now darkened sky above. How long had she been here? How long was she really unconscious down in that tunnel below ground?

The chandelier smashed to the ground CRUNCH!!!! Its weight crushing the Dread knight underneath it and breaking through the weakened floor before disappearing into the room below.

Thick black smoke bellowed upwards, and the accompanying sound of roaring flames filled the laibrary..

Again…. Beneath the haze of the fire, the vines of the aincent tree writhed and searched… gathering just underneath the place where Ammit would surly fall to her death in less than a second.. And then… somthing entered her mind…. A voice… THE voice she had heard since being here on the planet, but this time it was darker somehow… not as sweet, not as innocent… but it sounded almost desperate, tormented even……. “My lord… It’s you!! You’ve returned to us!!!….”

\*\*\*\*\*

IC: Knight Ammit Bathori

Arms stretched out she had jumped towards the next chandelier, but in Mid air she knew she wasn't going to make it. Her golden eyes widened and her heart raced, for a brief moment the world around her seemed to slow down but then she began to fall. "Kark!!" She yelled in terror as certain death was drawing closer.

The chandelier behind her dropped as well, being a lot heavier it reached the floor before her, crashing through and sending plumes of thick smoke up in the air. Perhaps it was a comfort for the Knight that she wasn't able to see where she would die. In those brief moments, Ammit tried to mentally prepare herself for her end, but her end didn't come.

A soft landing on a moving surface but due to the Smoke Ammit couldn't really see what it was. And even before she could try to find out something strange happened. A Voice, the one she heard before but it sounded different. "Who are you?" Ammit asked anxiously, she could feel the darkness.."what do you want?... what is happening?" She began to feel panicked, the smoke that surrounded her made her feel claustrophobic even.

\*\*\*\*\*

GM UPDATE:

Ammit fell through mid air in the old library but suddenly landed atop of the vines that lay beneath her, softening her fall and surely saving her life.. The many rope-like vines wiggled and writhed as though they were live serpents underneath her body, below her and out of sight something heavy and wooden creaked and then crashed amidst the crackling roar of flames. “Name…. Our name…..” the voice said again, just as dark and as before but this time it sounded thoughtful..Confused even.. “I recall once we had names....but those, like my scrolls, are lost to the darkness.. now we are called legion…. eternal….and all else is fuel for the sickness. I am not like the others…I wish only to serve..as I have always served..” the voice said directly into her mind, as the dozens of vines that moved and slithered all around the Iktotchi’s body suddenly wrapped themselves forcefully around her wrists, waist and ankles!

Before the Knight could react, she was lifted high into the air, her arms and legs spread wide, held in place by the vines that had ensnared her. Within moments she was brought before the thick trunk of the tree.. Her golden eyes just a few short metres away from what now was clearly a deformed face grown into the bark below the flower. Its eyes were closed, and a large chunk had been carved out where its mouth once likely was, now healed over with the same hard, clear, amber sap that encased the orchid which was now barely a metre and a half away from Ammits reach. “My lord…I can feel you.. your power… but you seem weaker than I recall…. I can help you if you wish it…you need only let me in..” the voice said.. Offering itself to Ammit. Around her, smoke was slowly filling the room despite the opening in the ceiling ventilating the space.

\*\*\*\*\*

IC: Kight Ammit Bathori

Despite not falling to the death, Ammit was still shaking and kept her eyes squeezed shut. 'How could she have survived this? Did she really survive or was this death?' She questioned herself.

But when she heard the creaking sound beneath her she opened her eyes wide, trying to get her bbearings. Due to the smoke she could barely see anything and she began ti caught. Then she heard that voice again, replying the question she asked a moment earlier.

"I don't understand" Ammit replied, which was no lie. Nothing made sense on this god forsaken snow globe. "Legion? What does that even mean?!" The Iktochi Knight asked and tried to get up, but that was quite hard considering the ground underneath her was moving. With her hands she could feel the surface was made from wood and yet is seemed to move like serpents.."what is this?" She wondered out loud and then realised it were vines or roots, from the tree.. "tree? No… the orchid.." the one she had seen moments before falling down.

Suddenly she felt that the vines began to wrap around her wrists and ankles. Ammit struggled, trying to free herself as she was lifted into the air. "Serve who!?... aaargh.. let go.." before she knew it she was brought before the face she had noticed earlier. Ammit kept struggling, trying to get away but it was a useless effort. "Lord?.. I don't understand.. what" \*cough\* \*cough\* "what do you want?!" \*cough\* \*cough\* I don't understand"

Tag: Game Master Yoda

\*\*\*\*\*\*

GM UPDATE:

The giant tree stood stoic amid the rising smoke and the temperature was beginning to rise sharply from below. The first small orange flames now visibly licking in between the gaps of the wooden floorboards.

Suddenly, a powerful darkness exploded inside Ammits mind, sending her eyes rolling back inside her head, and her body into convulsions as it hung there suspended by the large tree’s vines.

A voice screamed, exploding in the darkness, but it would not be clear if it was someone else's pained cry, or her own that she heard.

The darkside of the force she would feel was concentrating around her now, emanating from the huge tree. Wrapping them in a cocoon of darkside energy and clearing the air of smoke, however, the steadily rising heat remained present underneath her.

Then, for a moment… all went silent.

Ammit would feel herself, in this same room, but it was different. Everything was clean and organised and colourful with countless books lining walls and walls of amassed knowledge.. And, she would know, was no longer herself… She was the tree.. A smaller, and more alive version of it at least… instantly she would know what she was.. A Neti. She would feel old… really old… and in her bark covered arms and vines were dozens of parchment and scrolls she was putting away...

“Dail’Liss!” growled a man from outside of her vision. His voice was cold, harsh to the ear and the dark side of the force radiated off him.. She wouldn't feel afraid.. But as her old eyes looked to see his face, she would realise it was the same dark lord in the picture which hung above the mantle in the room below, however… he looked sick. His eyes were sunken and his face gaunt..but his power.. It was undiniable. “Jess, Lord Scabrous” The sith blade that pressed against Ammitts thigh instantly started to grow cold as the vision played out in her head.. The dark taint of its original owner and creator Lord Drear still lingering in its alzemized steel.

“Listen to me” the dark Lord commanded..”I need you to call to the Jedi Hestizo Trace, in the voice of the orchid. Call out to her for help.. Summon her here. Do you understand me..?” Lord Scabrous continued. “Jess…. of course my lord…as I have done for a thousand years.. I live to serve the Masters of this academy..” replied Ammit in Dail’Liss’s voice. “Good…” replied Scabrous in a fiendish and predatory voice, his eyes widening and thick saliva dripping from the corners of his cracked, grey lips.. And then, The Dark Lord reached for her… opened his mouth… and bit down hard into her wooden face.

Ammits vision changed…merged with the memories of the Neti and flashes of time spiraled fowards so intensely it was hard to make sense of any of it.. And behind the vision… a all emcompasing madness.. and a hunger that was ever present and threatening to take over her very soul..

Then, in an instant.. Ammit would know what had happened.. She would know the Neti was infected by lord Scabrous, it had the same sickness that the zombies she had faced earlier had contracted, and it was also the Neti who was the one responsible for burning the academy to the ground. But trees, as so often happen after a fire.. Re-grow and re-seed. Amit would know that a single remaining seed of the original black orchid had found its way onto the sticky sap of the Neti Dail’Liss corpse some thousand years before, then protected and nourished by the librarian's sap started to re-grow.. Transforming both of them as a terrible symbiotic dyad.. But she would also know.. They too, were connected to the sickness of this place… and longed to be reunited with its Master. Its Master, who’s dark energy was now radiating from Ammit’s body by way of not one but two of the Dark Lords artefacts currently in her possession.

Another and final chilling vision exploded in Ammits mind…   she would feel a heat running through her, yet she clearly was trudging through snow as fast as she could on her broken and frostbitten legs. She was wearing tatters, and her skin was thin and peeling from her flesh.. Yet there was no pain.. Only power. Immense power like she had never felt before and beyond that… the primal and all encompassing need to feed.

Looking around, she would see dozens.. No, hundreds of zombies, just like her making their way through the nighttime blizzard and all heading for the same destination, the burning academy ruins in the near distance.. Ammits head looked up to the night sky and let out a chilling scream in her undead voice “YYAAAAAAIIIIIYY!!” a scream that was soon joined in chorus by an army of zombies that surrounded her “They are coming my lord… we have called to them for you.... summoned them just as we summoned her.. And once they share with you your gift once more.. You will be complete… You will be.... immortal..!”

Ammit’s conciousness would then snap back into the now. The Neti’s vines had relaxed, still holding her but no longer as tightly and its base was now on fire, its bark popping and bubbling with the extreme heat. Ammit would need to hurry if she was to complete her mission and escape with her life. If both could still be achieved with an army of undead on their way and the entire building about to go up in flames, was however unknown.

\*\*\*\*\*

IC: Knight Ammit Bathori

She felt the heat, but was trapped. She couldn't move and if she could, where would she go? Before she could try anything she was overcome by a surge of darkness, coming from within her own mind making her let out a scream that echoed across the smoke filled library.

Ammit had no idea what was happening to her, but it felt like she was no longer in control of herself. Beads of sweat trickled down her face, the heat was immense but the air seemed clear. She looked up and noticed the smoke touching what looked like an invisible barrier. Surely that wasn't her doing? she was wounded and in a weakened state.

In a blink of an eye her surroundings changed. She still felt the heat but didn't see the smoke or fire. "I'm I hallucinating?" She thought to herself. It was still the same library as she could recognize some of the details, but obviously a long long time ago. She tried to move and only then realized she wasn't herself "what the…" she gasped in shock and saw her reflection in the glass doors of a bookcase in front of her. "What's happening.. I don't understand.." she whispered, or so she thought, maybe it was just her mind that spoke.

The knight startled when she heard a sudden voice call out a name. She turned towards the sound and saw the man she had seen on the painting, sending shivers down her spine. Frozen from shock and confusion she just stood there when she suddenly felt something ice cold on her thigh. She looked down but only saw the body of the neti, she couldn't see it was the blade she was carrying in reality.

Scabrous spoke and Ammit listened, it was all she could, she had no control over the person from whose eyes she relived the past. She wanted to run, but she couldn't. She wanted to fight him off but again, couldn't and could feel the bite. Ammit screamed in panic and fear…

As the image shifted Ammit learned more and more about what exactly had happened to the Neti, the orchid and to the academy. "Scabrous infected the Librarian, that Neti and the orchid had somehow become one" she thought to herself "and now.. they sense… their masters" she suddenly realized automatically attempting to reach with her hand to where the blade and pouch would be on her belt..

She gasped when another vison appeared..she was cold and yet still felt sweat trickling down her forehead.. "I'm dead…" was all she thought, looking down at her legs, frances of frostbite were visible through the ripped clothes.. when she heard that voice again in her head she realized this wasn't the past but the precent!

"Nooo!!!.." she yelled out and struggled a moment before she was snapped back to herself. Finally she realized it had all been a trap to lure her in… but why? Was she supposed to become a vessel for their Master? "No.. no.. no this can't be happening" and attempted to free herself from the vines that held her.

The Knight was so confused and the panic didn't help either to think of a plan. 'The tree is calling them.. like a.. a.. a hive mind…' she thinks looks up at the deformed face and then at the orchid… 'the orchid.. was used for the experiments.. it..force sensitive… its telepathic……I need to kill it' she realized… she kept struggling to free herself, she still felt the power surging through her and tried to use it to rip her right hand free.

If successful: Ammit would reach for her saber, taking it firmly in her hand and use it to cut herself free. She was only a few metres away from the orchid, she intended to force jump towards it, in an attempt to cut through the vines and barrier that trapped the flower..

\*\*\*\*\*

The Neti had seemingly lost its strength during the mind exchange and Ammits struggles, as wounded as she was, still allowed her to free her hand and as she swung at the vines who were holding her in mid air, freeing herself, she then began to fall. Ammit attempted to draw onto the force once more.. hoping this time, unlike the last, it would respond.. and as she landed onto the burning wood below she exploded back upwards and created a small, splintered black hole below her that a mound of orange flames instantly shot up from.. Ammits successful force assisted jump sent her back soaring up towards from the way she came towards the tree trunk and towards the orchid until she was at the same height as the amber covered black flower, putting it and the Neti within arms reach. This was her chance… Ammit could either cling to the burning tree and collect the plant or strike at it as she overshot its location and towards the ceiling…and the chandeliers. Perhaps there was even another path? Only one thing was infinitely clear… time was short and the dead were almost here.

\*\*\*\*\*

IC: Knight Ammit Bathori

Drained, that's how Ammit's body felt as she freed herself and attempted to draw onto the Force once more. Normally, all of these attempts would fail, she was simply too weak physically. But something helped her push through; was it the adrenaline that rushed through her body? Or was it the Force, the darkness that resonated through this place, through the artifacts that she carried on her person and through massive and mutated Neti?

Ammit didn't really know nor had she the time to actually think about it. It seemed a miracle that she managed to Force jump back up. Unlike her physical body her mind was strong, determined to end all of this horror and if she could put these undead out of their misery. The golden horned Iktochi reached the height of the orchid. When she first came here and heard about this powerful flower she intended to take it. Not for its power but out curiosity, to study it and learn from it. But now things were different, it seemed that this flower who had become one with the Neti was in control of these undead. She had no idea what would happen if she'd take the flower, but it was too risky to find out.

In a split second, as she reached the height of the flower Ammit decide to strike. She slashed her already ignited saber at the flower, attempting to burn through the barrier that seemed to protect it hoping that killing it would end everything. She reached for the chandeliers, praying that this time it wouldn't come crashing down..

\*\*\*\*\*

GM UPDATE:

Ammit slashed her purple blade as she continued past the legendary orchid, timing her swing to perfection as to destroy its protective casing and the flower inside.

“Master… NO!” Came the voice of the orchid into Ammits mind as it realised her intent.. the Netis vines instantly rose from the ground to stop her… but it was too late, and the Seer of Prakith’s will was too strong.

The Iktotchi knights plasma beam, burning with the increased intensity of the darkside sliced through the hardened yellow sap like it was butter and its white hot heat all but incinerated the coveted force sensitive flora which grew within.

{ Die x3 roll for mission ending parameters. Results = Rooftop. Injured (broken leg). Both Sith Items recovered. }

Within a moment… the cocoon of Darkside energy that surrounded the Neti that was keeping the smoke from choking our hero suddenly exploded outwards like an ignited thermal detonator. The shockwave hit Ammit in square the back as she made her way upwards towards the chandelier, sending her, and it crashing into the ancient Sith library’s ceiling.

~\*~

Sometime later…..

Ammit slowly awakes, she can probably tell she’s alive, if nothing else because of the intense pain shooting through her left leg, which was now twisted at an unnatural angle and her femur clearly broken. Her back would be hot but her face cold, indicating she was outside lying face up. And indeed she was. If Ammit could bring herself to look around she would notice she was now fifteen stories up on what little remained of the Academy roof, with the frosty, ice winds of the planets surface sending occasional gusts of light snow across the rooftop. Large sections of which were broken away, and smoke was still bellowing out all around her which indicated the ruins on which she lay were still ablaze.

Close by, there was a slightly bent out of shape thousand year old lightning rod which she could possibly crawl to without falling to her death. It would be unclear if the undead of this place were still out there in the snow.. she would not be able to hear their screaming from this height… but also.. no longer would voices be speaking into her mind from the library below.

However, despite her seemingly helpless situation, there was yet a metaphorical Kyber crystal among the coals.. Her lightsaber was still close by, seemingly undamaged and laying barely a metre from her body.. attached to Ammits waist was still the Sith blade of Dark Lord Drear, and on her chest lay Shadow Knight Voldur Daywalkers satchel, its pouch clasp undone and it's content revealing the unmistakable sharp triangular edge of a Sith holocron.

As our hero’s consciousness begins once again to fade.. a slight crackling static noise can be heard coming from her stored communicator.. […\*static\* ….. Mistress…. \*static\*…..thori… \*staic\*….an you hear me….\*static\*…finally locked…. \*static\*…your location….\*static\*…adnezzar…\*static\*…ickup in….\*static\*….minutes…\*static\*……istress…\*static\*…peat…0R-9.…..\*static\*…..n my way.. \*click\*]

\*\*\*\*\*

IC: Knight Ammit Bathori

Everything happened so fast; one moment she was mid air striking her saber at the mutated Orchid, the next moment she woke up in cold on the roof.. "Aaarrgh!!" She cried out when she suddenly felt a sharp pain shooting through her leg. Slowly she pushed herself up and glanced at her leg, it was twisted. The sight of it caused more pain to shoot through her entire body. "Aaahrg" she cried out again and dropped back onto the ice cold snow..

Slowly she turned her head and looked around. How was she going to get off this roof, she couldn't walk. Then she noticed the l and lightning rod and instantly thought 'maybe I can use it like a crutch?' But even if she wanted to, her body decided otherwise. She began to lose her consciousness again. The world was spinning around her and her body felt heavy. However before she was out completely, something caught her attention. The soft crackling sound of her comlink. Barely able to understand what was said she lifted her arm and pressed onto the comm.. "Korg?.. is that you?" She asked with a weakened voice.. "Did it work? Are they dead?" She then asked before even thinking about herself, all that mattered to her was that the terror on Odacer faustin had ended.. "Korg?... I…." But before she could finish her sentence everything went completely dark…

Ammit had lost consciousness but her trusty droid recovered her from the roof. Taking her safety, getting her the medical help she needed…

[THE END]

{ Congratulations Bathor - Legacy you have successfully completed your mission to Odacer-Faustin and, however, deciding to destroy the orchid, you recovered Darth Drear’s Holocron & his Sith blade. I want to thank you to the stars and back for allowing me to GM for you on this mission, I enjoyed it immensely and I hope you had a fun time too. Thank you again😊 JG. }