(Untitled)

[cathar_jedi]

You must come to see what the Wilderness is, Ha       Briana.  [After a moment, the second 'n' is put in, much smaller to fit the little space between letters.]

I do not think I am mistaken.  The crystals which have been found within react to the Force.

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[cathar_jedi]

[Juhani had started visiting this Wilderness a few days ago. The tunnels seemed familiar in a nagging way, and she'd been surprised to find that the Adventurers did not know what kinrath were. Zero had mentioned crystals, but between kinrath and the complexity of their tunnels she had had no progress to speak of. And then - today - one Adventurer with his arm in a sling had come by with a finger-sized spar of glowing rock.]

[She had asked to see it. It was riddled with flaws and imperfections, but it had responded to her attentions, warming, the energies she directed into it radiating outwards. The Adventurer wished to keep it, but had told her where it had been found, and suggested that farther in the cave, amongst many more kinrath, there were clearer ones.]

[And so Juhani waited not far from the elevator, listening with half an ear to the cries of kinrath and more benign creatures. She had not seen Brianna since her return. This, now that she had some other focus, seemed a good time to break that streak.]

[ice_echani]

[Brianna hasn't been to this Wilderness yet. She's been focusing on retraining her sight to compensate for the lost eye, which isn't progressing as fast as she'd like. She knows she should have sought out Juhani before now, but in truth she had been waiting for Juhani to do that herself after what she said on Brianna's journal entry after her rebirth. So it's something of a relief to see her now.]

[When she steps off the elevator into the caves, Brianna is struck with a sense of clear, undeniable... it is more than familiarity. She has walked through this place before. She unhooks her quarterstaff from her belt on some instinct, and she decides to trust it.]

Juhani. [She says it softly, so as not to alert any hostile cave creatures--Zero's report had spoken of those, had it not?] This place... I feel as if I know it.

[cathar_jedi]

As do I. [Juhani doesn't look at her more than briefly; she is staring intently out into the dark. There's more light here than one might think, even aside from the torches the Adventurers carry and leave near the elevator, but her eyes are adapted for brightness. The darkness is much more complete to her than it would be for a human.]

If you wish to carry a light, then the dark past it will be entirely opaque. Yet the Force is strong in these caves.

[ice_echani]

Yes... I can feel it. [She shuts her eyes for a moment. It is like a tingling in her forehead. And somehow Brianna thinks it would be best to go further in.] I believe I can make my way without one. And it will be easier to detect the creatures in here if our night vision is not blinded.

[She begins walking forward, lowering her voice for safety's sake.]

Do you have any specific memory of this place, or is it a feeling only?

[cathar_jedi]

I cannot say I remember these caves. Yet... [She stops, raising her head. Her ears are cupped forwards as far as they'll go, and she stretches questingly outwards in the Force. After a moment she shakes her head and continues.]

You know that I was once trapped in an enclave on a grasslands. It was on the surface, in open air, and I found no other life but plants - and yet something is the same.

I am not certain what it is. Perhaps the taste of the air, or the gravity, or something in the Force. Perhaps all three, or something else entirely.

[ice_echani]

Do you think this is the same planet, perhaps? The idea of an enclave on such a world seems... correct.

[She looks around.]

I do not know where these tunnels lead, but perhaps we should trust in the Force to guide us. [She hears a scuttling noise and extends her quarterstaff.] And to warn us of these creatures.

[cathar_jedi]

Perhaps so. I suppose it matters little; it is a re-creation, not the world itself.

[It takes almost a half hour for human eyes to adapt fully to low light conditions. Cathar, though having decidedly inferior night vision, take less than half as long; she clearly feels and vaguely sees the leggy creature standing ahead, using its facial appendage to collect pale fungus. At the moment there is only one; kinrath can't suddenly leap, so although she lowers her voice and draws her sword, she speaks.]

When I spoke to Scourge I was told that he saw them in a place where there were many kinrath; that his party had encountered them in increasingly greater numbers before they found it. Perhaps they nest there.

[Come to think of it, that was probably why she hadn't found it herself yet. She'd been avoiding the things when possible. If it did not detect them, perhaps they could follow it; it appeared to be gathering food.]

[ice_echani]

That is true enough. Still, we may be able to learn something of this place, and perhaps its connection to the Jedi if there is one.

[She detects the kinrath as well, but she too continues to speak in what is for her a conversational tone as she prepares to attack.]

If the crystals react to the Force, do you think that it might draw the creatures there?

[However, as she says that she launches her attack on the single kinrath. Might as well dispose of it quickly, starting by lifting it into the air with Force Whirlwind.]

[cathar_jedi]

[It looks like Brianna will be able to handle the creature. Juhani leaves her to it and casts out with the Force, sparing just a flicker of attention for in case she's wrong.]

[The caves are a warren of tunnels set in and around natural open spaces, splitting and rejoining, sometimes parallel to or atop each other. There is an underground river somewhere in it, too. Kinrath, Spherians, and smaller cave animals are traversing and encountering each other as the tunnels allow. It's a startlingly complex thing to try to get a handle on. Still... She feels that she has an idea.]

It... We should continue on. This path opens on to others.

[ice_echani]

[Whap bam wallop--it's almost invigorating to deal with the creature, despite the persisting clumsiness of her strikes. The sense of certainty that she has experienced a similar situation is very... reassuring.

But, Brianna tells herself, she cannot allow that to make her complacent.]

[After a few moments there's a thud.]

Very well. I will follow--you know this place better than I. [She begins moving forward then.] The crystals... they are colored, correct?

[cathar_jedi]

[The tunnel opens into a misty little cavelet which had once been thickly forested by stalactites and/or stalagmites, until they'd been broken. She doesn't see them at all, but the faint warning in the Force causes her to move more cautiously, until she understands.]

Be cautious. The footing is poor here.

[Juhani turns blindly and hesitates, trying to decide on a tunnel opening. There's cool moving air flowing from one of them, but the sense in the Force...]

The sample I was shown appeared to be blue. I was told that he had seen other colors, briefly, before he was forced to retreat.

[Her head snaps around - and there's faint scrabbling from a pit in the floor. She's over at the edge in three long strides, sword drawn, and somewhat messily decapitates the first kinrath to attempt to crawl out, who's several seconds ahead of the others.]

Down this way, once these are dealt with.

[ice_echani]

[Brianna nods. She reaches further into the Force, a conscious effort as it is more than she is used to, but she's been finding it of great help now that she's down an eye.]

Zero's entry spoke of the different colors. But there is a world of difference between words on a page and seeing them with my own eye.

[She spins at the sense of danger rising from that pit and starts fighting again--she tries aiming precision strikes with the tip of her staff, but even with the Force, the missing eye and gloom of the cave result in a lot of precision striking at the air. So she switches to a messier, bludgeoning kind of technique.]

[it's quite distasteful.]

[cathar_jedi]

[Juhani keeps an eye on Brianna as she parries a venomous facial appendage. If the other got killed during this - well, Juhani won't let that happen. She snarls a threat for no reason beyond that the sound will attract more of the creatures' attention to her.

You will fall-!

[She misses the lightwhip. In an enclosed space like this one it would probably bring part of the cave down on them, but - still. Juhani takes a spare second to viciously slash one of the legs of Brianna's current opponent, then returns to hers as it makes its determined way up past the body of its predecessor.]

[ice_echani]

[Brianna is surprised at the shout, but realizes quickly that it's just a way for Juhani to deflect their attention off of her.

Which sort of irritates her because she's quite capable of fighting, but she's also grateful because... yeah. She kinda needs it for now.]

[She takes down the hamstringed kinrath--or whatever equivalent of hamstring those things have--and calls on the Force to try and hold Juhani's in place.]

[cathar_jedi]

[Juhani very rarely uses the Force in combat. Telekinesis doesn't come easily to her; to move anything particularly large she has to be in a calm place. And she's not calm when she's fighting.]

[She enjoys it too much; everything is so simple. Sense the rippling surges of hostility, only increasing as their fellows die, letting the Force inspire her in how to react. It feels honest, clean, even if she can't just surrender herself to combat now.]

[When there's a lull and no fresh scrabbling of legs on stone, she's breathing hard and kind of disappointed.]

You are unharmed?

[ice_echani]

[Brianna might say something about Juhani's obvious enjoyment of combat if she saw anything wrong with it. Which... she doesn't. Despite the difficulties, she feels invigorated, renewed in body and purpose by the fight. The challenge and struggle makes the exploration of these caves all the more worth it. Even if her fighting is clumsy, she throws herself into it without hesitation.]

[She's about to answer automatically as her breathing slows to a more regular rate, but she's aware of the cuts. They're not poisoned, fortunately, but they exist.]

Nothing serious. [She calls on the Force to heal the injuries, and Juhani's if there are any.] Shall we continue on?