The Dark Descent

[Adrian Lynd]

ooc: This is a series of posts from 2014, there might be formatting errors. I'm too lazy to fix them.
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Eleven Years ago.

The Valley of the Dark Lords, he had heard of it before but this was his first time here. It wasn't a place to visit, for non Sith that is and few Sith as young as he dared to enter the valley alone. There were numerous things here that could kill even the most well trained in the ways of the Dark Side. There were creatures, spirits and most notably, other Sith who had come to prove themselves and might view any one or thing put in their path as an obstacle that they must overcome.

It wasn't safe here.

That was obvious.

So, to find a lone sixteen year old Sith on this planet, no, this area of this planet, was not something anyone would have expected, it wasn't something that even his master would have expected from him, he was here for himself and no one else. Perhaps he was drawn here, his father had spent a good portion of his childhood on this world, not that he cared about him. At. All.

The wind was strong, a mix of dust and sand filled the air, making it difficult to breathe, the young Sith raised his hood, his face shrouded in darkness, except for the two red eyes that peered out into the valley. He brought his arm to his face to guard against the harsh elements. He slowly made his way through the valley knowing that there was a tomb he was looking for, but not one he knew by looks or name. He knew he would feel the correct tomb when he happened upon it, so for all intents and purposes the young man was walking aimlessly through a valley on a planet consumed by what some might call pure evil.

A treacherous place.

Putting it mildly of course.

He knew there were other Sith here, he could feel them and he gathered that they could probably feel him as well, he was strong with Dark Side, a fact which he was well aware of, but if there is one thing a Sith valued as much if not more than power, it was self preservation. Adrian cared about himself, first and foremost, so the first priority was staying away from the other Sith, if he met one in a tomb so be it, but no chance encounters on the surface, it did not serve his purpose nor did he have anything to prove.

Then it struck him.

Like a hot blade through his chest, he dropped to his knees short of breath grasping his chest in agony, it felt as if his heart was beating out of his chest and at any second it was going to beat no more. He fell forward further, catching himself with his free hand, the young Sith looked up and saw an entrance to a tomb. One that seen before, one that he had never read about or heard of, he had walked miles, further than most bothered to venture and there was this place. The name was obscured, mostly worn away by thousands of years of weathering, perhaps grave robbers or some overzealous young Lord took the nameplate with him as a souvenir a reminder of what he had accomplished.

The pain was gone.

The young Sith struggled to his feet and stood before the entrance of a long forgotten tomb, both of his twin lightsabers flew into his hands.

Stairs.

Hundreds of them.

To a non force sensitive the descent would've been a perilous one, the angle was steep and there were no railings or handholds to be seen. Then of course there was the sediment and dirt the covered each step, one false move could lead to a long fall, likely not a fatal one, but a few broken bones and if you happened to land wrong, perhaps a broken neck.

The deeper he went, the temperature seemed to rise as well, which was contrary to common sense, the deeper one went into a planets crust the colder it generally was and while this tomb was deep, it wasn't so deep as to go more than a few hundred feet down at the most, but yet it grew warmer with each step.

A landing.

This was the first of many, there was a doorway to his left and one to his right. He could keep descending or he could pick one of the two passageways and see where they lead. He turned his head and opted to take the one on the left, there was plent of time for exploring the other on the way back. The doorway led to a narrow passage and at the end of the short passage was a staircase directly to his right which descended for a short distance, so he started down, as he walked past a sensor red lighting illuminated the hallway, this was interesting.

He continued his descent until he reached a wall and passage way to his right. There was clearly no choice so he took it, only to wind up on the same long descending staircase that he started on, only a few dozen feet lower. With a doorway directly in front of him, which was clearly the other passage that he had chosen not to take.

Curiosity.

It killed the cat, but whatever he had time to spare. Adrian walked through the very narrow passage way, which happened to be far smaller than the one before it only opening up as he approached a right turn and tripped yet another sensor which illuminated the the room with bright white light. Before him was an ascending staircase which was no surprise, there was no way to turn around so he took it and quickly completed the circle, before finding himself right where he started on the same staircase. He looked to his left up towards the entrance to the tomb to notice a bright white light illuminating the giant door which he came in, he then looked to his right and continued down.

He quickly made his way to the second landing from which he had just came, noting that the temperature had risen just a couple of degrees. He stared almost straight down as the angle of the staircase became steeper yet, which he found to be impressive on the engineers part as the angle was already a treacherous one.

He would have to watch his step.

Several more landings.

Each landing offered the same two choices as the first, two passageways with stair cases on either side. He only took one more before he realized that it was simply a pattern, he noticed each time that the distance between landings increased. He did not understand why this would be done unless it was to drive potential intruders mad with the over simplified maze coupled with the ever increasing temperature and fading light. The young Sith continued to descend the stairs, beads of sweat now forming on his brow and slowly creeping their way down his face, it was getting hot.

This was getting odd.

A landing on a staircase, one would normally expect that there would be stairs, but no, he had reached the end of the stairs, what was before him was a sheer drop of what looked to be over a hundred feet into a pit of pure darkness. He crept closer to edge and looked down, he noticed several handholds on the face of what amounted to a cliff. He could make his way down easily enough and if he fell he could always break his fall with a mighty force push, but he had no way of knowing what was beneath him. This was a tomb though and there had to be something down there, otherwise no one would have gone to the trouble to design and build something of this magnitude..

A deep breath.

He had come this far and going back at this point would not only be annoying but it would be completely pointless. Finally, he turned to face the stairs and allowed himself to drop far enough to grab ahold of the ledge and continue his way down. The handholds were many and easy to find, it was as if it was designed to make for an easy descent, the only thing was his hands were now clammy with sweat as the temperature continued to rise, it must have been over one hundred and twenty degrees and it wasn't cooling off anytime soon.

He had reached his last handhold after several minutes and he could see the floor beneath him, the only problem was that it was a good twenty foot drop, but after coming this far he had faith that there would be something provided for him to land safely, but he wasn't sure what exactly, plus he wasn't sure he had enough energy to make the climb back up in this heat.

So he let go.

Dropping the rest of the way would only take a second but in that fraction of a second after he let go he realized that this was at trap for a non force sensitive. Quickly he unleashed a force push to cushion his landing so as not to break both of his legs, a fate which would be less than pleasant as he would surely die here with an injury such as that. As he made contact with the ground he felt a rush of cool air and heard the sound of flowing water to his right and his left. He was thirsty, but there was yet another choice, the right or the left, not that it mattered, because it seemed to be flowing both in the same direction merging into one in the middle.He bent down and dipped his hand into the warm liquid and brought it to his mouth, he quickly slurped up the liquid, spitting it out almost instantly.

"Blood?!"

The taste was undeniable but unfathomable nonetheless. He made his way to the opposite stream, bent down and drank from it to find that it was fresh, cool and clean water. The essence of life. After several more drinks he turned to face the direction in which the streams turned to one and started to move once again.

Before him was a long hallway, that continued for a few hundred feet.

A snap.

Ray shields shut up behind him covering the rock face that appeared to be his only way out, he must have tripped another sensor or this was an elaborate trap. Oh well, only one way to go at this point and that was straight ahead down the hall, what was at the end was anybody's guess.

The walls were bare, no ancient Sith runes, no murals, and no warnings telling him to go back, which of course was exactly what he wanted to do at this point in time, it all was starting to feel like a giant game. Sure there was the stream of blood and there stream of water, which he was following and it was all quite intriguing, but that is not why he was here. He wiped the sweat from his brow and continued down the hall.

Nothing eventful.

Nothing yet, there wasn't too much further to go and this place appeared to be void of any real illumination whatsoever, it was not like the stairs which there was always a bit of light, fading the further down he went. This was a room that was nothing but total darkness. There was no sound but that of his own heartbeat, the streams and of course his footsteps. Sith generally were not afraid of much but once again tell a Sith that his own life is at stake and chances are they're going to listen, so when the hair on the back of Adrian's neck stood up on end, it was instinct that one of his twin lightsabers flew into his hand almost instantly and it's red blade illuminating the immediate area around him in a red light.

Was that a Shadow?

He spun on his heel turning to face whatever attacker had dared to cross his path, but there was nothing. There was no one down here but him, his mind must be playing tricks on him, he could not longer trust it and would have to rely on the force to guide him. His blade extinguished, he clipped it to his belt and took a breath before continuing down the hall.

His heart beat was increasing now and it felt as if the air was growing thinner. Was it? He wasn't quite sure, but he did have supplies on his belt to remedy that situation if he found himself in it. He continued, one step, two steps, three steps and then four. He was nearing the end of the hall but there was nothing in front of him, nothing he could see anyway.

Was this it?

Had he come down here for nothing? His eyes narrowed and his brow sunk in a disgusted glare as this hall led to nothing but a giant empty room. He felt like turning back now, but he had come this far so he took a couple steps into the room and felt around with the force, his dark energy radiating off him and peaking in anger. He was clearly a Sith to anybody who would've been looking for one. There was nothing here, he sighed audibly wishing he had some charges just to demolish this giant waste of time.

The stream.

He had forgotten about the stream, it continued deep into the room and and stopped in a large pond which encompassed much of the far side of the room. He bent down and cupped his hand tasting the bloodied water, it was no different than before, just a muddied mix of blood and water, again the feeling of disgust returned. This was all for nothing, none of it meant anything.

He spun on his heal and turned to leave and again the hair on his neck stood up and chill shot down his spine, he stopped for a moment, red eyes aided by the force scanning the area. He turned around and searched the entirety of the room, it was dark and there was nothing again, how shocking. To hell with this, he wasn't going to waste anymore time and energy. He could go for a swim and see where that took him but chances are it was going to wind up with him stuck underwater in nothing but an elaborate trap. He questioned his rebreathers ability to work correctly in half blood and half water, if that didn't work, then he'd really be screwed.

Time to go.

Not yet.

As he took one more step the room illuminated in bright blue light as thousands of volts of force lightning shot through the young Sith, he instantly dropped to his knees, screaming in agony. There was no time for thought, no time for reaction, not even for a Sith. This was it, he was going to die here, and it was all just for nothing. The lightning continued as his knees gave way and pain shot through his entire body, he landed face first on the floor of the great room. Then as quickly as it had started the lighting had stopped.

He lay on the ground gasping for air, he was defenseless, there was nothing he could do at this point. He tried to pull himself up and kneel before whatever had beaten him, truly it was his superior and there was no point trying to fight it, not until he regained some strength. The rooms lighting shifted to red and a holographic image took shape before him, he couldn't quite make it out as he was still grimacing in pain.


::Greetings young Sith...::

A voice boomed and Adrian forced his eyes open to view the image...

Before him was an image of a man dressed all in black, his face featureless, he was entirely unremarkable. Adrian bowed his head in complete submission to the more powerful Sith before him.

"Greetings My Lord."

This was all he dared to speak, there was nothing left to say other than this, the image had asked him no further questions and he dared not to speak out of turn, at least until he got his strength back. What was really on his mind was how none of this made any sense whatsoever. He sensed no life force in this tomb, he had been here for hours and sensed no one else. He was alone, or at least he thought he was. Had his senses betrayed him? No, his senses were at a state of hyper awareness the entire time as he was being overly cautious, at least for a Sith. He dared not let his eyes wander around the room now that it was lit, but of course there was curiosity. What he could see however was the ground beneath his feet, it was smooth and black, which was probably why seeing was difficult earlier.

He took a breath.

Strength was slowly returning to him, but the pain still lurked in his body. He wasn't expecting to get shocked and nearly electrocuted, he had not prepared himself for this so he was simply not ready for it. He had absorbed force lightning before and knew how to deal with it, but every other time, he had brief moment to prepare for it whether it was a fraction of a second or more, this time however it was purely instantaneous, no warning signs at all.

::Welcome to my Tomb young one. You have come a long way, most would have turned back by now knowing that the deeper they went, the more challenging the return would be and after that burst, I don't imagine you have the strength to make the climb back out of here.::

Adrian blinked, daring not to look up just yet.

::Arise young Sith, no use in prostrating yourself before me, soon we will be equals and you may indeed surpass me.::

Unexpected.

The only way to describe what was just said was with that one simple word, he was not this man's equal, that much was clear so what exactly was he talking about. He did as he was told and stood up and gazed upon the holographic image.

"I doubt that my Lord, for yours is a power I can only hope for. What is your name? The name plate on the entrance to this tomb was scratched off or worn away by the weather."

The image moved and it's eyes met the virbant red eyes of Adrian.

::My name is not important, what is important is where you go from here. The pool at the far side of the room, your rebreather will work for a brief time, long enough for you to get deeper into this tomb, but by the time you reach the other side it will become clogged and there will be no light so making a repair to it will be difficult if not impossible. Remember, the deeper you go in this tomb the harder it will be to make the return. In the beginning, turning around would have been merely an annoyance, you were given several opportunities for it however. The deeper you went they became fewer and further apart, you came upon what you thought was an end. It was at this point most would turn back, but you dove in and sunk further into my Tomb. From here you can continue, if you do this tomb will become your tomb young Sith, but you may find something down there. If you turn back now, I'd say you have a good fifty-fifty shot at surviving this ordeal, but you are dehydrated and wounded with my dark energy. The climb back will not be easy, you've burned that bridge, the ray shields guard the original entrance and you will die if you try to disable them, this much I can promise you.

Behind you and to your right once you face the entrance to this room, is a small passageway, it is narrow and requires an almost vertical climb of fifty meters. Once you reach the top, you will continue down a long and very narrow corridor which comes to a fork, chose wisely young one, because one way leads to life, the other leads to certain death. If you choose correctly, you will continue to yet another rock face after a narrow walk of a hundred meters. From here the ascent is more challenging, fewer handholds and you will be even more dehydrated than you already are, by this time, you will be in agony. The blood mixed with water that you drank, contained a slow acting poison, it won't kill you, but it will immobilize you and in your condition that will lead to a slow and agonizing death.

Assuming you make the second climb without falling to your death, you will be nearing the entrance to the Tomb once more, again you will come to a fork and again you will have to choose. If you choose correctly, which will be difficult as one way may look more enticing than the other, you will be rewarded with fresh clean water, containing the antidote to my poison. From here you can find your way out.::

Red eyes widened as everything was explained to him, anger began to fill his aura, this tomb was nothing but a waste of time and as it turned out it was a potentially lethal waste of time. How could he have been so stupid not have seen this. Adrian glared at the Sith before him, but he couldn't blame the man, treachery was their way and that's exactly what this hologram had made perfectly clear to him. Of course the water was poisoned, why wouldn't it be? He took in a deep breath.

"So this was nothing but a waste of my time, there is no secret knowledge to be gained here, I went down here to be poisoned and toyed with?"

::Not quite young Sith. There is a lesson to be learned here, but whether or not you heed it is entirely up to you...you don't have time for it to explain it to you, if I were you, I'd hurry.::

The hologram faded and the room sank into to total darkness once more, apparently there was no time to lose...