1.0 - The Rescue of Hethan Romund

Heyop is not necessarily still bleeding, but the blaster wound is quite visible in his shoulder. Csillag serenely reaches out to Heyop and he feels the power of the Living Force infuse him after a few moments. When they pass -- he feels hale and hearty again -- bolstered by the Force. Not far from them, Dagger is practicing with his vibroknife and not hearing much pass on the comlinks. For whatever reason, it appears that the guards are not talkative types. Kaveri stands a little apart from the rest, looking around. She notices that the path continues about 100 meters or so then splits ahead with a left turn heading towards the north -- more or less in the direction of the temple.

With nothing else to occupy your immediate attention, you slowly and implicitly gather things up and head down the path, taking the left turn north. It leads to a series of steps carved into the mountain side that lead up to another steppe, from which the river falls under the bridge. It continues along the river and across the step for what appears to be the final ascent to the mountain. A series of switchbacks that disappear into a tunnel a few dozen meters below the temple.



The going isn't particularly tough -- but it's still a bit of a walk that requires the better part of a half-hour to get to the entrance of the tunnel due to the continuing increase in elevation. It appears to lead behind the falling river that now clearly originates from the temple above. The tunnels seems... dark. Though sconces can be seen not far from the entrance -- as if to indicate that at one point artificial light was available. About 50 or 60 meters above you, you can make out the wall of the temple -- crumbling towards the eastern end directly above you. In the center of the wall there looks like some kind of obeslisk in the middle of the river -- which pours quickly around it and down the falls that the cave before you runs behind.

OOC: Dagger and Heyop add a blaster pistol (Ranged (Light)) to their inventory. Dagger adds a comlink, too. I think you both have dropped the rifles, as well?

After offering Csillag thanks and a bit of a trek they found themselves looking at the entrance to a cave. "I guess we're pressing forward? Carefully this time?" Heyop stated moving forward unless someone wanted to scout ahead instead. If not he's moving to the first visible scone to see what's up with light sources in the caves.

(OoC: Let me know if you'd like a stealth check.)

The cave is quiet, a little damp and musty and quite dark. Peering in from the place of the first sconce -- you suspect you can get another 5-10 feet before you're encased in the pitch dark. The wall sconce itself seems about as old as anything else Heyop has laid eyes on. It's sort of miraculous it appears to continue to be stuck onto the wall. It might be something that could be coaxed back from the dead -- but it's quite difficult to ascertain at first glance.

Csillag remains back by the entrance to the cave whilst Heyop noses about.

With Dagger's purloined glow rods the tunnel lights up quite nicely. Despite the rugged exterior, it looks well-crafted further in, if a bit worn by the years. It would seem that this was a Jedi temple that was long since abandoned well before the Empire. with the light, the tunnel no longer seems quite as foreboding as it once did.

The tunnel snakes straight and curves up and to the left, coming out into the sunlight once more on the far side of the temple, about halfway up from where you entered the cave. The path leads around the mountain, with an old stone bridge arching over the waterfall that originates from the temple. A short walk around the eastern side of the temple leads to a set of stairs that curve north, east and then back around to the plaza of the temple.



As you settle into the plaza the temple seems even larger than you first imagined it, its large stone arches and pillars crowned with snow. To your right, around a large pillar is a short flight of wide stairs leading into a natural grotto of some sort, while ahead of you is a large stone plaza. The temple itself is an imposing facade of stone, crumbling rock and the occasional cloaked statue that ancient Jedi appear to be so fond of in their work. Far across the plaza, you can easily make out the silhouette of a small door past on of those statues. Smack dab in the center of the temple is the main entrance -- and about 15-20 meters away on the eastern end of the temple, another small opening appears to lead inside.

This broad, stone plaza that you're on is lit by the warm spring sun -- and dozing in the sunlight at least 75 meters away is a small pack of four native predators. They appear to be large, four-legged mammals with powerful jaws and fangs. One stirs in its slumber, jostling a second, and suddenly there's a snarling, spitting, roaring and a crunch of bone and blood. Now there are only three. Clearly these animals are driven mad by the dark side of the Force. Getting past them, into the temple is your next challenge.

Correct.

The party tenses as, once more, Dagger moves forward into the fray. He easily moves within short range of the slumbering predators and on a whim, tosses a small handful of rocks at them before ducking back behind the pillar. Aroused and angered by the rocks, the three wolf-like creatures turn on one another and the fur and blood flies and you watch as before you the beasts proceed to mortally wound each other. The "winner" of the battle half-collapses on the far side of the raised steps and tumbles down it to splash into the water. Based on the noise and bits of water, you surmise that it struggles to stay afloat as it heads towards the precipice not far away.

To the party's surprise, another pack of three of the predators appear at the entrance to the grotto -- having closed stealthily without you noticing. However the sight of potential prey triggers a power struggle amongst the three, and they are soon just two. Their business done, their turn their bloody maws at Heyop, Csillag and Kaveri, quite interested in the meals before them.

Players please roll Vigilance for initiative.

OOC: I took the lead on this triumph because I wanted to keep things progressing. In the future if you roll a triumph, feel free to work with me in the OOC thread or through notes or messages if you want to accomplish something suitably dramatic and awesome. A triumph is meant to be a pretty big deal, so use it well!

Initiative is 3 players, NPCs, 1 player. Feel free to post in arbitrary order (unless you want to coordinate). I will coordinate/modify the last player to post if they post before I post the NPC move.

Range to the wolves is Short for Kaveri, Heyop and Csillag (1 purple die).

Go!

Dropping to a knee Csillag readies her holdout blaster and takes aim at one of the creatures.

GM: adding a boost die from Heyop.
GM Edit #2: Ugh. Sorry.