[X] Gather several holocrons, ancient cubes filled with the wisdom of the Sith who came before. The teachings of the Dark Lords of ages past may yet be of aid on Ziost.
[X] Focus on your self-control. Whatever lies below can manipulate your feelings. You cannot allow it to expose you, to expose the masquerade, to ruin all that the Sith have worked for these long years.
[X] Focus on your self-control. Whatever lies below can manipulate your feelings. You cannot allow it to expose you, to expose the masquerade, to ruin all that the Sith have worked for these long years.
[X] Meditate. Focus on the Force and fling your eyes into the future.
[X] Gather several holocrons, ancient cubes filled with the wisdom of the Sith who came before. The teachings of the Dark Lords of ages past may yet be of aid on Ziost.
[X] Focus on your self-control. Whatever lies below can manipulate your feelings. You cannot allow it to expose you, to expose the masquerade, to ruin all that the Sith have worked for these long years.
[X] Gather several holocrons, ancient cubes filled with the wisdom of the Sith who came before. The teachings of the Dark Lords of ages past may yet be of aid on Ziost.
[X] Focus on your self-control. Whatever lies below can manipulate your feelings. You cannot allow it to expose you, to expose the masquerade, to ruin all that the Sith have worked for these long years.
[X] Focus on your self-control. Whatever lies below can manipulate your feelings. You cannot allow it to expose you, to expose the masquerade, to ruin all that the Sith have worked for these long years.
[X] Meditate. Focus on the Force and fling your eyes into the future.
[X] Gather several holocrons, ancient cubes filled with the wisdom of the Sith who came before. The teachings of the Dark Lords of ages past may yet be of aid on Ziost.
[X] Speak with Malden, Rhyelen's apprentice. You have met the boy several times before, but this will be an opportunity to truly speak with him.
[X] Focus on your self-control. Whatever lies below can manipulate your feelings. You cannot allow it to expose you, to expose the masquerade, to ruin all that the Sith have worked for these long years.
[X] Meditate. Focus on the Force and fling your eyes into the future.
[X] Focus on your self-control. Whatever lies below can manipulate your feelings. You cannot allow it to expose you, to expose the masquerade, to ruin all that the Sith have worked for these long years. [X] Speak with Malden, Rhyelen's apprentice. You have met the boy several times before, but this will be an opportunity to truly speak with him.
Meditation and Self-control? One is neccesarry, but two is a bit too Jedi.
[X] Focus on your self-control. Whatever lies below can manipulate your feelings. You cannot allow it to expose you, to expose the masquerade, to ruin all that the Sith have worked for these long years.
[X] Meditate. Focus on the Force and fling your eyes into the future.
If we take some Sith holocrons with us, wouldn't there be a chance people find out we have them?
[X] Gather several holocrons, ancient cubes filled with the wisdom of the Sith who came before. The teachings of the Dark Lords of ages past may yet be of aid on Ziost.
The knowledge is worth it.
[X] Focus on your self-control. Whatever lies below can manipulate your feelings. You cannot allow it to expose you, to expose the masquerade, to ruin all that the Sith have worked for these long years.
Self Control is mandatory, we need to uphold the masquerade. Also how many Sith died because they made boneheaded decisions by giving into every minor impulse without forethought?
An important question relating to the emotion manipulating presence on the planet.
Meditation gives us another way to center ourselves, traditionally at least, and having an idea what awaits us is important, forewarned is being forewarned. And it doesn't risk us being exposed like taking Sith holocrons into the field would.
Speaking to the padawans/ apprentices is in my opinion secondary, either they survive, in which case good, maybe they fall, also good, or they die, no great loss to us and we minimize the risk of exposure.
[X] Focus on your self-control. Whatever lies below can manipulate your feelings. You cannot allow it to expose you, to expose the masquerade, to ruin all that the Sith have worked for these long years.
[X] Meditate. Focus on the Force and fling your eyes into the future.
When in doubt, trust in the Force. Whether dark or light, it takes one places.
[X] Gather several holocrons, ancient cubes filled with the wisdom of the Sith who came before. The teachings of the Dark Lords of ages past may yet be of aid on Ziost.
[X] Focus on your self-control. Whatever lies below can manipulate your feelings. You cannot allow it to expose you, to expose the masquerade, to ruin all that the Sith have worked for these long years.
[X] Gather several holocrons, ancient cubes filled with the wisdom of the Sith who came before. The teachings of the Dark Lords of ages past may yet be of aid on Ziost.
[X] Focus on your self-control. Whatever lies below can manipulate your feelings. You cannot allow it to expose you, to expose the masquerade, to ruin all that the Sith have worked for these long years.
[X] Focus on your self-control. Whatever lies below can manipulate your feelings. You cannot allow it to expose you, to expose the masquerade, to ruin all that the Sith have worked for these long years. [X] Speak with Malden, Rhyelen's apprentice. You have met the boy several times before, but this will be an opportunity to truly speak with him.
[X] Focus on your self-control. Whatever lies below can manipulate your feelings. You cannot allow it to expose you, to expose the masquerade, to ruin all that the Sith have worked for these long years. [X] Gather several holocrons, ancient cubes filled with the wisdom of the Sith who came before. The teachings of the Dark Lords of ages past may yet be of aid on Ziost.
[X] Focus on your self-control. Whatever lies below can manipulate your feelings. You cannot allow it to expose you, to expose the masquerade, to ruin all that the Sith have worked for these long years.
[X] Meditate. Focus on the Force and fling your eyes into the future.
Super tempted to go for holocrons, but those can wait.
[X] Focus on your self-control. Whatever lies below can manipulate your feelings. You cannot allow it to expose you, to expose the masquerade, to ruin all that the Sith have worked for these long years.
[X] Meditate. Focus on the Force and fling your eyes into the future.
[X] Focus on your self-control. Whatever lies below can manipulate your feelings. You cannot allow it to expose you, to expose the masquerade, to ruin all that the Sith have worked for these long years. [X] Gather several holocrons, ancient cubes filled with the wisdom of the Sith who came before. The teachings of the Dark Lords of ages past may yet be of aid on Ziost.
Precognition is well and good, but I prefer more solid sources of info about the ancient Sith world. Sure, we amy not always have such sources, but we do have them now, right?
As the Jedi make their final preparations for the expedition, you kneel on the floor of your chambers and close your eyes. You have spent the last year in communion with the Force, and it is easy to focus, to concentrate on the core of hatred and malice that seethes in the center of your being, until the world slips away. The hum of the ship's engines, the sounds of crewmen walking back and forth, even your own shallow breaths--it all fades as you reach out and seize the Force. You do not simply meditate, you assert. It is the way of the Sith to let their emotions run unabated and uncontrolled, with only the barest minimum of control that is necessary to maintain the deception of the masquerade. Indeed, no normal Sith could do what you do now.
But you were Jedi. You are Sith.
Your rage, your anger, they are a storm, raging in the Force, and the thing on Ziost has stoked your emotions to a boiling point. But you will not be overcome by your own emotions. You will not let anything or anyone manipulate you. You are in control, and you will never be a slave again, not to your emotions, and certainly not to anything--or anyone--else.
You.
Will.
Not.
The storm quiets. The flame cools.
You are in control.
Always.
[Rolled 1d100+4 for "Will Not", Epic Success (103)]
Jesus. I roll for the first time in a month, and y'all have hacked my dice again.
{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}
It takes several more hours before the preparations are finished, in which time you finish exerting control over your emotions and readying yourself for the expedition. Finally, when all is ready, you board the shuttle along with Wularan, Rhyelen, and Rhyelen's apprentice, Malden. The ride is a quiet one, and though you know none of the Jedi have sensed the presence in the Force, it weighs on everyone present all the same.
You can sense the emotions of the others in the shuttle, brimming at the surfaces of their minds like cups about to overflow. Wularan is a knot of anxiety and concern over his first mission, facts you can read plainly on his face without use of the Force.
But the boy, Malden, is different. Though he is quiet and shy, seemingly absorbed in meditation for the duration of the trip, you can sense far darker things in his heart. Loss. Confusion. Hate, violent and furious.
And as for his master, Rhyelen is unreadable, a blank wall of grey against which your senses fail. It is odd. Few Jedi, even Masters, shield themselves so much, and certainly not so well. You know further prodding would draw his attention, so you withdraw, but not before catching a whisper of emotion, a whisper so strong it is more like a yell, a whisper of...anticipation.
As you withdraw, the Master's head snaps up from meditation, and his green eyes slide around. For a second, you think that perhaps he has sensed your intrusion. Instead of focusing on you, however, he opens his mouth to speak.
"Right, we'll be landing on Ziost soon. The gravity storms have lessened enough that we should be able to land directly at it's position. We go in, find and extract any survivors, and if at all possible, recover the ship's records so we can find out what happened all those years ago."
He pauses for a long moment, then speaks again.
"Be careful. All of you. May the Force be with you."
{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}
Cold.
Ziost is cold.
Not a natural cold, the cold that comes with lack of heat, but a deeper cold. You can feel it draped around you, burrowing into your flesh and your bones. It is everywhere and in everything. It is in the rocky, black ground that spreads on for miles. It is in the air that settles like a weight in your chest. It is in the dim, bleak light that filters through the storms above to scowl at the dead earth.
There is nothing to sense in the Force, you realize, because there is nothing here. Not plants, or scrubs, or lichen. No moss, no bugs, no...anything. This world is dead. A hole not only in the Force, but in life itself.
Perhaps, in another situation, you might be unnerved, but your mind is no longer on the cold, or the dead world, but on the colossus before you.
It rises hundreds of feet into the air, a size to rival even the skyscrapers of Coruscant, and its massive length sprawls, across the landscape, shattered into two vast pieces that rise from the ground like bones. It's vast hull digs into the grey earth, the sign of an ancient crash, and engines that dwarf your dropship rise jaggedly into the bleak sky. This was the hope of a generation, once. It is the greatest of the ships of the Jedi Order, preserved on this dead world for nearly a century.
"The Heart of the Force."
Rhyelen' voice is heavy with a thick sense of loss, and he waits a long, still moment before turning to you and the apprentices.
"The ship broke on landing. We will have to split into two teams in order to canvass the full breadth of the ship."
He quickly explains that the Padawan living quarters and engines were to the back of the ship, the majority of which is now the leftmost piece of wreckage. The Master's quarters and training facilities, meanwhile, were situated towards the front. Whoever--or whatever--triggered the beacon could be on either section.
To further complicate matters, you can sense the presence in the Force, so close you can almost feel it's breath on your skin. Whatever it is, it is here, aboard the Heart. It could be waiting in either section, however, and thus it comes down to you to decide.
__________________
[] Take Malden, Rhyelen's apprentice, with you.
--[] Go to the front of the ship.
--[] Go to the back of the ship.
[] Take Wularan, your apprentice, with you.
--[] Go to the front of the ship.
--[] Go to the back of the ship.
[] Try to convince Rhyelen to let you go alone.
--[] Go to the front of the ship.
--[] Go to the back of the ship.
[] Try to convince Rhyelen to abandon the idea of splitting up and investigate both portions as one team.
