Session export: GJW XVI RO Team Shriekhawk

Four figures stepped through the Arx gate to the ethereal realm. A shadowy reflection of Eos city appeared around them. The city was an abnormality. Buildings stood tall and shimmered; seeming to phase between material and ethereal. Wispy smoke curled around the structures. A foreboding chill came over the quartet. All four could feel a sense of hatred, of injustice, aimed towards them. As they proceeded deeper into the city they could make out the ghostly outline of foes vanquished in past battles. Ghostly members of the Collective, Revenants, and even recently slain members of the Ga’lum appeared before them.

“Oh what fresh hell is this?” the small Twi’lek mummered as she looked out over the upside down version of one of her least favorite places, Eos city. “Let’s get this over with.” She started the long disturbing walk into the city. Reaching out with the Force, she felt millions of voices crying out in terror. Sinya’ni shuddered. The voices of the damned assaulted her mind even as she retreated back into herself. She stopped abruptly as she concentrated on pushing the voices out with limited success. “That is…unpleasant,” she said as she glanced at her companions. “If any of you access the Force, don’t feel ahead.” Willing the voices and subsequent headache to the background, she once again stepped towards the foreboding cityscape.

A Kiffar, a human, a Twi'lek, and himself. An odd quartet of mishmash none the less. Brim could sense the uneasement from Sinya and knew there was things even he didn’t understand despite all his years of training. The city of Eos has been a hotspot for past battles, instead of a luxury town to earn credits. The Chiss fought here before so it was all too familiar. And he wasn’t planning on making the same mistakes that nearly cost him his life the last time. “Sinya,” spoke the Warlord, “be wary of yourself and your mind. Don’t let the echoes of the past write your future.” The four continue their search of the Children and to get the intel to help the Throne to end this war once and for all.

“Man, this place is weird.” Looking around, Haro saw several familiar cantinas, restaurants, and shooting galleries, reflected in the shadowy city. “I wonder if the interiors are intact?” Reaching for a door panel, he shuddered as his hand passed right through. “Cold. Maybe-” He stuck his head in through the door. Recoiling, he acted on instinct, pulling out his blaster and firing a shot through the ghostly head of an apparition. Unaffected, the figure retreated back into the building as the other three members of his group came running at the blaster’s report. “What happened?” Sinya asked, pulling out her lightsaber. “It was nothing,” Haro replied, glancing back at the building. “Just a ghost.”

“Do not shoot the ghosts. You will draw attention from things that can actually hurt us,” Sinya’ni stated the obvious. Her tchin twitched nervously as she stole silently down the street ignoring the phantasms leering at them with hateful stares. Most of them were merely a pair of eyes surrounded by blurred humanoid shaped mist. However, there were a few that looked more corporeal. Sinya spotted one such figure. A human she had seen as a prisoner of Plagueis. She didn’t remember his name…John maybe? But she did remember the look on his face, the desperation and fear as she told him to frack off when he asked for help. Later, she watched him survive the coliseum only to be gunned down by guards. The look and feeling of utter hopelessness that radiated off the doomed human still haunted her and was a contributing factor in her exodus from Plagueis.

The phantom approached with a determined gait and air of confidence that had been lacking in there previous interactions. Hatred permeated the atmosphere as the Force manifestation screamed and charged at her. The blue skinned Nightsister dropped into a defensive stance and splayed the fingers of her left hand towards the assailant. Green lightning arced through the air towards the ghost.

“What was that you were saying about the ghosts?” Haro said, unable to resist a smile. “About how we shouldn’t attack them?” Sinya, hand still extended, lightning still flickering across her fingertips, didn’t reply. His smile faded. “Who’s that? Someone you knew?” “I- yes. Someone I knew.” Her eyes still fixed warily on the specter, Sinya lowered her hand. The ghost continued to approach, seeming to glare viciously at the Twi-lek. Haro didn’t understand what Sinya was seeing, but to him, the ghost just looked like a wisp of smoke with eyes. Looking around, he realized most of the apparitions looked similar, with the exception of a few, who appeared as real, and some even looked tangible. “Alright. Where are we headed?”

“For now we continue to move forward. After a few blocks we should arrive below one of the floating islands. Preliminary scans have shown it to posses a unique gravitational pull. We will all be able to jump to it. We should be able to leap across several Islands bypassing the shattered plains and arriving above the location the recon team went missing in the Corpse Fields.” Hector explained.

The Kiffar pulled his single bladed lightsaber from his waist and removed the kyber crystal, storing it in a small belt pouch.

“I must ask that you refrain from attacking the next several ghosts we encounter. Through studying lore on Nightsister spirits and altars I have devised a ritual to seal away some of these spirits within a Kyber Crystal. I wish to see if we can implant this crystal within a living being to use the spirits against our enemies.”

“Hmm, and where did you learn about Nightsister spirits?” the Twi’lek queried while giving the armored Jedi a side eye. “I hope your research was all hypothetical.” She reattached her lightsaber to her red Nightsister armor and started forward again. She could just barely make out the floating isle through the skyscrapers. “This looks like it may take awhile.” She closed her eyes and took a deep calming breath. “It’s only ghosts…they aren’t real. Just ignore them…they can’t hurt you,” she murmured to herself. “They can’t hurt us…right?” she asked, suddenly unsure.

“When the aurora Collegium was known as the Shadow Academy, much knowledge was available. It was there I learned of a variety of Force rituals and history. Nightsister magics was among them. As for th ghosts, I truly can not say. This realm is as new to me as to all of you. If they behave similar to Sith spirits they can hurt us if they are suitably powerful. And if they can take after nightsister spirits possesion is a possibility to prepare for.” Hector explained

“Well folks, we need to move this along. Don’t worry about the spirits cause unless they have a connection with you, they won’t matter much. We need to get through the Corpse Fields so we can find the team that we lost contact with.” Brimstone was right, they were taking too long worrying about ghosts that were really meaning them no harm. Magics and concoctions were not going to end the Children’s reign of terror, only the power of the Force was going to bring them down. There were hovering platforms hanging in the air, but being they were not getting bombarded by anything above, it was safe to assume there was no enemy on top of them. “Perhaps we can jump to the platforms to avoid these spirits down here and make our way quicker to the Fortress” he retorted.

“That sounds good,” Haro replied. “We should probably go there soon,” he said, glancing at the ghosts, some of which seemed to be approaching. “If they can hurt us, we probably shouldn’t stick around here any longer.” Jumping to the first platform, he turned back towards the other members of the party. “What are you waiting for? Come on!” Jumping towards the next platform, he let out a shout as he was suddenly pulled to the side by some invisible force. He reacted quickly, activating his jetpack and turning back to the platforms. “What happened?” The yell came from Brimstone. “It appears to be a pocket of distorted gravity,” Hector replied, as Haro landed on the edge of the platform. Haro shouted back. “You think? This is so weird, being sideways. You should come try it!” He grinned as they made their way toward him. “Hope you brought jetpacks!”

“You mandos and your jetpack fettish…” Sinya’ni said with a slight disapproving shake to her head. She closed her eyes and drew in a long slow breath, feeling the Force imbue her cells with extra energy. Leaping off the ground she ignored what her eyes were telling her, letting the Force guide her leaps and flips and midair twists until she had joined the reckless armored human. “You really should wait for your team. You never know what–.” The sentence ended abruptly as she spun toward the rocky terrain on the sky island.

“What? Did you lose your train of thought?” Haro teased. Just then, the tortured screams of a mutated rancor split the air. The human warrior spun toward the sound as the crystal infused monstrosity burst out from the rocky crags. The nightsister Twi’lek had been directly in the poor creature’s path a moment before but now was nowhere to be seen. It barreled past before turning back confused. The lady in red no longer there, it shifted its attention towards the cocky Mandalorian….

‘Sometimes it was best to take the path of least resistance’ Hector thought to himself. Reaching out with his hand he took advantage of the gravitational anomaly to pull himself towards his comrades.

As he closed the distance he reached out his other hand and called upon the Force to slow his descent. His travel slowed and he landed softly on both feet.

Hector’s yellow eyes widened as he witnessed a crystalline shape barreling towards Haro. The Mandalorian activated his Jetpack and took to the sky, raining a barrage of blaster bolts from his Westar blaster pistol.

Hector immersed himself in the Force. His temperature began to lower as he felt a chill crawl up his spine. His fear of the power wielded by the Children of Mortis, His hatred for all the damage they caused, bubbled up to the surface. The Dark Side fed eagerly upon these emotions transforming them into a deluge of purple lightning which stretched from the Kiffar’s hands and impacted the Rancor.

The beast howled in pain and rage, its diminished intelligence and awareness split between the two sources of pain. Unbeknownst to the beast Sinya’ni awaited nearby, hidden from the creatures innate senses, prepared for the perfect opportunity to strike.

Above the rancor, Haro put away his blaster and pulled out his lightsaber, igniting it as he dropped to the ground behind the beast. “Hey, ugly! Over here!” As the beast turned, Haro lunged unknowingly towards a blast of green lightning from his left. He stopped just in time and backed up, still shouting at the rancor. Meanwhile, Brimstone’s HK added its own blasts, and Brimstone, having made his way to the island, blasted it with his own lightning. Finally, Haro pulled out a thermal detonator and threw it towards the beast. As the grenade flew, it crossed one of the strands of lightning and exploded right in the beast’s face, disintegrating the entire front of the beast. What was left fell to the ground, bits of lightning still flickering on its body.

“Well, that was unfortunate. If not a bit overkill,” the nightsister said as she suddenly appeared next to the corpse. She looked at the crystal formations protruding from it. “Oh you poor thing. Look what they did to you.” She turned around to Haro and the others. “You didn’t have to do that. You could have just moved on to the next island and left the poor mutilated creature alone. Though I suppose you did put it out of its misery…. Well let’s move on. No use dwelling on it.” Though it was at least 30 meters away, she easily lept to the next sky island.

As the party leapt to the the next platform, K'ebatas, Brimstone’s HK droid spoke up. “I could never understand emotional reactions to pitiful creatures” referring to Sinya’s statement to the dead rancor.

“That’s because females of different species have strong emotional attachments to living things, like a motherly instinct, that most males do not have” replied his owner.

“I see. How unfortunate!” replied the droid, “hopefully you don’t have any for me.”

With a smirk, Brimstone grabbed his droid by the shoulder and leapt with him to the next platform. After they landed, the party was looking to the horizon and could see the abstract silhouette of the Fortress in the distance. They kept a watch out for other monstrosities that were guarding the platforms. Four more of these floating landscapes were in their path towards their objective. After 3 more leaps, they were on the final rocky, cragged landscape with plenty of cover. Brimstone sent K'ebatas to scout ahead. Moments later, he received a transmission from his droid.

“I have found the other party we’re looking for, all deceased” communicated the droid.

“Understood. we’ll be there in a few.”

The team of four made their way to the droid’s location and found the grisly scene. 5 members of the advanced scouting team were just shredded all over the landscape, so torn up that neither of them could be identified to even what race or species they were.

“Looks like we got something more sinister than a rancor to watch out for” Hector exclaimed. Sinya and Haro just looked like they were about to hurl their rations from earlier at the sight of the carnage.

The blue Rutian rolled her eyes at Hector’s ‘Captain Obvious’ impression as Brimstone arrogantly strolled into the gruesome scene. Haro and Sinya’ni held back and surveyed the carnage before disturbing it. Deep scratches scored the rocks all around the victims. Carbon scoring signified the soldiers put up a fight, however it seems they were unsuccessful. None of whatever attacked them were among the deceased. Though, there were some tufts of fur and strange blood spatter, so the creatures were not invulnerable.

“Maybe don’t contaminate the scene before we investigate?” the Twi’lek chastised as she absorbed the details of the bloodbath.

Hector stepped forward to better observe the massacre. His keen eyes picked up the glimmer of crystalline fragments among the flesh of soldiers gouged by claw marks. It was this keen perception that saved his life moments later.

As the Kiffar reached down to touch the bodies to utilize his psychometric powers he caught a flash of movement in the corner of his vision. He threw himself backward as razor sharp crystalline claws rended the front of his armor.

The chest piece tore free from his undershirt. The Kiffar stared at the newfound sight in bafflement. A blood and crystal encrusted Nexu prowled towards the group. Patches of fur had been singed and burned, leaving an unnatural green smoke that curled around the creature in an aura.

‘Why couldn’t I sense the creature?’ Hector asked himself. ‘The Force did not warn of its presence.’

The creature huffed and chortled as if it were privy to Hector’s thoughts. The green wispy aura coalesced into a column of smoke, warping around the Nexu. When the smoke disappeared the creature was gone, all save for the slightest distortion of light.

‘Two can play at that game.’ Hector thought to himself. He reached out to the Force, wrapping it around himself like a shroud, only for it to dissipate before he finished.

“The creature has taken my ability to Force Cloak.” The Kiffar uttered to the group in fearful realization.

It was now clear what they were dealing with. The creatures were Nexu, twisted by the children into some grotesque killing machines.

“Well, let’s not hang around to figure out how they do it. We have our answer, let’s report back and get out of here,” the Twi’lek posited. “No use dying like they did.” She motioned towards the shredded scouting team.

“No, we should wipe out the threat,” the ambitious Mandalorian countered. “We can handle one marked up Nexu.” Just then the creature appeared and pounced at Haro. The warrior jumped away, as the claws failed to find purchase on his armor. The usually graceful flight of the mando was a spinning wobbly mess as the impact disrupted his axis. “On second thought, maybe you’re right. And we don’t know how many of these are out here.”

The Nexu disappeared again while hector and brimstone agreed to the tactical withdrawal. “The comlink isn’t working. There is some sort of interference. So yes, a withdrawal is prudent,” the blue skinned veteran intoned.

The group left the way they came, catching a glimpse of not one, but three more creatures descending on the killing field.

“Looks like we got out just in time,” Hector noted.