Eclipse and Lishi's Epic Adventure (a side mission)
Eclipse and Lishi are sitting on what was once the sandy floor of a gladiatorial arena. Hover lamps move slowly above a canopy of tropical trees casting rays of artificial sun down around them. On the ground before them sits the fist sized red pyramid left behind by Chevalier.
After minimal discussion Lishi reaches out with the force hoping to activate the holocron and fails. She lifts it up to float in front of her and inspects it. Eclipse then tries and succeeds in accessing the Dark Side. The holocron activates. A holo recording of a disembodied head appears above the holocron facing Lishi as it senses her history with the dark side of the force and her inhibitions to cutting down her targets. It is elongated with a flat nose and small thin mouth. The eyes are hidden in the shadow of a hood.
The recording is ancient. The image glitches and the audio pops as the face before them demands, “Tell me what you regard as your greatest strength”
Lishi pauses to think before answering, “My intuition and decisiveness”
“Thus I may know how to undermine you. Stripped of your strength you must come to rely on the Darkness within”
The holo-recording fades away and one side of the pyramid begins to glow with a faint red light. Lishi presses that side hoping it’s some sort of button but nothing happens. Eclipse suggests reaching out to it with the force again. Reaching out she is beginning to feel the subtle differences between the Light and the Dark. She feeds the Dark Side into the holocron.
“Tell me your greatest fear”
Lishi answers, ”Failure”
“Thus I may know what you must face. To bring the Dark Side of the Force into yourself and allow it to reside within you, you cannot fear what comes with it.”
The holorecording once again fades away and a second side of the pyramid begins to glow. The two lit sides now brighter than before. Lishi, now fully understanding what's needed, reaches out to the holocron again.
“Tell me what you crave.”
Lishi, without hesitation, answers, ”An end to The Empire.”
“Thus I may know what I must deny you so the Dark Side will be your only vice.”
The holo-recording once again fades away and a third side of the pyramid begins to glow, the three lit sides now brighter than before. Again, Lishi feeds more power into it.
“Tell me what you cherish most."
Lishi speaks, her voice sure, but weary of the consequences, ”My loved ones.”
“Thus I may know what I must take from you. For the Dark Side to accept you and grant you the depths of its power, your every passion must be aligned to serve it.”
There is a small click as the last side of the pyramid begins to glow. A fierce red light comes from the holocron drowning out the mottled rays of sunshine coming through the leaves above.
“You are the first. Many have sought the secrets I’ve placed within this holocron but the telling of one's own truths is anathema to those who seek power. Invariably the ones who come know no truth. They deceive themselves and thus they try to deceive the universe. The first step you must take is on Auratera. Go there and search for truth”
After the recording finishes Eclipse and Lishi discuss going to Auratera. Eclipse and CU-DL search the holonet for information and find subtly doctored data showing the planet having been rendered uninhabitable by the clone wars. She is also able to find some recent small ship travel records which shed more doubt on the information she was able to find.
She finds the names of the three largest settlements on Auratera and is unable to decide which one they should travel to. Eclipse takes a moment to meditate on the planet and on the information she has on it so far. She allows the Force to guide her towards a destination. She informs Lishi they should go to Hriin. There seems to be some disturbance relatively near this location.
While in flight to Auratera Eclipse and Lishi see if they can get more information out of the holocron. It tells them about some ancient ruins on the planet.
Upon arrival Eclipse lands the Krayt Fang in a nearby field since the small settlement doesn’t have a landing pad large enough for the ship. As she and Lishi leave the ship and make their way towards the town a small group of children has excitedly gathered to watch them and the spaceship.
Lishi kneels down as she gets close to the children and asks if any of them know of any nearby ruins. The tone of the encounter changes immediately. Some of the adults in the group hear the question and start calling the kids away from the foreigners. One of the children, a young girl maybe 10 years old, seems reluctant to leave and may have something to say about the ruins.
After the abrupt ending to the welcome. Eclipse and Lishi make their way into the town and Lishi reaches out with her sense to see if she can get a feel for the mood of the town. She gets a sense of dread from the adults nearby and a feeling that they just want to be left alone to their simple way of life.
Lishi takes some time to inspect the town. There are some older looking medical facilities, some small personal speeder repair shops, two very old looking water powered generators, several homes clearly hooked up for power but nothing is on, a small school, and the chancellor’s office area.
Eclipse wants to go and check out the school to see if there is a library nearby it and Lishi decides to go talk to the chancellor about the obvious power issues hoping to win some good will.
At the library Eclipse finds an old lady asleep at the counter. An unfinished knitting project in her lap. She makes her way back to the history section hoping to find information on any local ruins or folklore. Thinking back to her own childhood and remembering how she would hide things she wanted to be able to come back to behind other stuff she searches behind the books stacked neatly in dusty rows. She finds an old dusty tome with several pages of information on The Acablas Ruins. Including a small sketch map and some information on its tumultuous history. Some pages have been ripped out of this section of the book.
Lishi enters the Chancellor's office and finds several of the citizens yelling at the clerk to let them speak with the chancellor. After being noticed by some of these people they switch their attention to her yelling for her to leave and to just let them be. One man asks what her business is here. Lishi tells them (knowing from their earlier holonet search that the planet used to be a large importer of medical supplies) that she is looking for places to sell the medicines made from the Ryl she mines. The commotion settles down at this point and Lishi notices that a haggard looking middle aged woman has perked up and is paying more attention after hearing about medicines. Lishi approaches her and offers to bring some medicine to her home. She agrees. At this point the clerk informs Lishi that the chancellor would like to speak with her. He, too, asks about her business but sees through the deception of the medical sales and Lishi tells him about hunting for the ruins. She offers to help fix their generators as a show of good faith. He reluctantly tells of the battles between the Jedi and Sith for control of the Acablas Vergence and of the negative effects it had on the locals. He also talked about its continued effects as some people are still drawn to it and locals will wander off into the wilderness and never return.
Eclipse and Lishi meet up at the generators and CU-DL runs a diagnostic on them. One is just impaired and running below what it should but the other is completely shut down. Lishi goes back to the Krayt Fang hoping to find some parts to help and also to get medicine for the lady she met. After bringing the parts back she and Eclipse finish fixing the broken generator.
After years of being without power many of the people had long forgotten about lights left on and various other things that were never switched off. Shouts of alarm start coming from the town and people are running from their homes in various stages of dress.
As they prepare to make their way back into town Lishi notices a small girl, roughly 7 years old, watching them from behind a building. She points her out to Eclipse but after being spotted the girl has run off. Eclipse goes to see if she can find the girl while Lishi heads to the ladies house.
Eclipse finds footprints and follows them to a large shrubbery with a small entrance in the back near a tree. It’s clear the footprints lead into the opening and she pokes her head in and is immediately smacked in the head with a stick. She turns to smile up at the little girl hoping to be disarming but gets smacked in the face.
Lishi finds the woman’s home and is invited in. She lives in a small one room house and her and her children live in this space together. In one corner two children lay in beds coughing. They both look pale and sickly. Lishi awkwardly brings up the obviously missing husband and is told about how four years ago he gave into the pull from the ruins and never came home. He had been resisting it his whole life but finally had to go and see what was there. Her youngest daughter is also showing signs that she may go the same way. Realizing this must mean the child is force sensitive Lishi offers to take the child and train her with the other younglings. The mother, already knowing she would lose the child eventually, readily agrees to let her go. Lishi gets a sense of renewed hope from the lady as she realizes that her daughter won’t find the same fate as her late husband.
Eclipse conjures some flowers and places them in the little fort the girl has made, narrowly missing having her hand smacked by a stick in the process. Lishi comes over after finishing with the family and they convince the girl to come out and join them. After being told they will be going to the ruins the little girl very excitedly goes with them.
On the way to the ruins Eclipse and Lishi both try to help the girl to focus on her abilities. As they get nearer their destination Lishi notices the girl fiddling nervously with a bracelet she is wearing. Eclipse makes an expert landing at the old busted up landing pad. After leaving the ship Eclipse and the girl head into the Jedi Temple and Lishi makes her way to the Funnel where the dark energy is coming from. While Eclipse is exploring the Temple she runs into a huge locked door that she is unable to get into. In the meantime Lishi has been drawn in by the Vergence and is being pulled against her will further into the Funnel.
Eclipse leaves the Temple hoping to find Lishi, who isn’t answering her com, and finds her walking slowly towards the hole in the bottom of the funnel. She leaves the girl at the top of the Funnel and makes her way down to where Lishi is hoping to help but finds herself caught in the Vergences pull also.
The two of them eventually end up at the bottom of the funnel.
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