Arc II - Fill the Land With Smoke

[Doctor Who]

[All those that have threats, take strain]

Zyla, distracted by the unusual surroundings and discomfort, is not very observant.

Spoiler:

Zyla; TotOR; Perception:
0 Success, 2 Threats

ST-3R and Waz'aru notice that, as they walk, the ups and downs seem oddly placed, oddly spaced, and oddly deep. Varc and Arca notice that Jarkyc seems to be getting a bit more uncomfortable, continually seeming to count steps into and out of the small pits and dips that are quickly becoming more common as the mountain is approached.

"It is strange, there ahre no predahtors nearby," Jarkyc mutters through the open comm system, "stay on your guards."


Waz'aru notices what appear to be faint tracks, that Jarkyc has been following for the last few minutes. To his eyes, they appear much newer than three weeks, but he isn't sure without more inspection.

[ShadoWarrior]

"It is strange, there are no predators nearby," Jarkyc mutters through the open comm system, "stay on your guards."

Arca inquires, "I sense that something else is bothering you, asides from a curious lack of hostile fauna. What is it?"

[Vergence]

Externally expressing its thoughts of curiosity, "Excuse me but I am very new to this planet. What sort of natural phenomena creates terrain such as this? These unusual dips don't seem to be from any form of planetary erosion I'm familiar with" it shares, expecting a logical explanation brought forth.

[Doctor Who]

Without stopping, Jarkyc responds to both ST-3R and Arca, "The ground's pockmahrked nature reminds me of ah heavy orbital bombahrdment, but aht least ah few thousand years old. Whahtever did this must hahve been mahssive to leave this much damage."

[ThreeBFour]

"Question Jarkyc. Would it be possible for us to communicate with a ship in orbit and have it maybe use it's sensor to look down here and find a center to the barrage pattern? I have a feeling our cave may be there."

[Doctor Who]

Orcam speaks up, "We could probly get it done, we'd have to set up some ground sensors since a lot o' this is thick rock and the ship has no way ta' triangulate perfect accuracy with just itself."

He digs through the hoversled.

"Luckily, I brought some with us before we came down ta' the planet."

He hands a rather large object to Joran, and then pulls out another two. He gives one to Ka'ran, and the other he holds on to.

"We head a ways south first, then loop back a ways north, then keep the last one wit' us."

[kanila]

”I will assist with the placement. Is there a certain distance they should be apart?”

[Doctor Who]

Orcam chuckles, "we're not splittin' up, we're going as a group. Don't wanna risk anythin' happening."

[kanila]

”That’s fine. Either way we need to find a good place for those. Perhaps we can check the surroundings for tracks. If the predators are as bad as you say it would be wise to know if anything has been through here recently.”

[Doctor Who]

"Good idea," Orcam says.

[ThreeBFour]

"I did notice there were some tracks leading that direction." Waz'aru mentions to the group pointing in the direction they were heading. "I'm not sure if Jarkyc had seen them and was following the on purpose or it was just coincidence, and we all know how the Masters feel about coincidence."

[Doctor Who]

Varc wants to help look around, but he's merely able to lend a small bit of aid, not actually help in an extensive manner.


Jarkyc looks at Waz'aru. "I wahs following them on purpose. They look recent and were headed in the same direction as us."

He hits a few keys on an external datapad he wears on his left wrist gauntlet. A holographic image of the prints appears, with depth, toe-placement, estimated weight, and other elements showing.

[Vergence]

As Jarkyc's datapad gauntlet measures the prints, ST-3R begins searching through the lore database Master Wox Vawo had internally installed. "What could of created this? I hope its friendly.." the droid processes.

Spoiler:

ST-3R; TotOR; Lore + Disciple of Lore + Boost:
4 Successes, 1 Threat

[Doctor Who]

ST-3R can tell he's missing something about the prints, but as far as his databases are concerned the creature's feet appear similar to a big cat's, although it seems surprisingly light on its feet, even given that the rough terrain that it was walking over is not conducive to leaving tracks. It's toes are separated, though, rather than together as on a cat.

Near as ST-3R can tell, it looks to be a Tuk'ata, a large animal that was found to inhabit quite a few of the Sith worlds. Seeing one this far out seems odd, especially given the lack of any information on Sith explorers reaching this far out.

[Vergence]

Turning towards Jarkyc, "The tracks appear to be an usually large cat. Did the natives happen to migrate any Tuk'ata here?" it questions, unsure of the world's known ecology.

[Doctor Who]

Jarkyc tilts his head. "Hahven't ever seen a Tuk'ahta in these pahrts, sahw a few when I wahs pahssing through Sith space. Ahs fahr ahs I know, the natives hahve never hahd them."

[Vergence]

ST-3R nods in relief, "Regardless, the unknown creature seems to be light on its feet. I've heard stories that the natives would unnaturally transform their fauna to create guardians. Lets hope this is not the case" it shares, still scanning cautiously as the party continues.

[Doctor Who]

After around 50 minutes the three sensors are placed.

Several minutes later, the ship sends a message by comms that it has triangulated a cavern location up ahead, closer to the base of the mountain.

Now more alert, the party notices that the footprints head toward the cavern's location. As the ground becomes rockier, the footprints become more sparse.

[anyone else wish to do anything?]

[DeepSpacer]

"It would make sense that the Sith native brought some of their native fauna and species with them. Are these Tuk'ahta known to have been domesticated? Sith pets, maybe?" asks the Twi'lek.

"We shouldn't we try to avoid harming it? Do we have any strongly-scented food or wild game to put out to lure it? We could stun it, right? Stun it, restrain it, and then explorer what we need to explorer, do what we need to do. It'd be cruel to harm an innocent animal simply for convenience sake."

"Arca could simply "sedate" the feline after we stun it a bit, like he did with the others back on the Herdship." says Trixie, rather proud of herself for stepping up in a compassionate way (Compassion being her 'Emotional Strength').

[ThreeBFour]

Waz'aru pulls out the stun pistol, reading it for use. "I will say it was a rather refreshing nap, even if I did have to pick plastercast from my tail for a while afterwards," He adds, winking at ST-3R hoping the droid would realize there were no hard feelings.

[Doctor Who]

"Stunning is probably for the best, especially if they are trainable and possibly connected to someone or something." Zyla, like Trixie, glances around to see if anyone knows anything about Tuk'ata.

Spoiler:

Zyla; TotOR; Lore:
2 Failures, 1 Advantage

"I seem to recall hearing something about them hunting in set areas, not traveling?"


"Ahs fahr ahs I know, Tuk'ahta were ferahl bahstahrds thaht hunted down anyone thaht came into their territories, never sahw any trained or traveling, but they're supposed to be intelligent, from whaht I hear," Jarkyc says. Joral and Orcam both shake their head, they don't seem to know anything further. "I do know thaht these things hahven't been seen while I've ever been here." Jarkyc adds.


Karan has fallen behind the group a little bit, and is glancing on the ground at some of the prints.

[Doctor Who]

Arca and Waz'aru step aside and briefly confer on any knowledge they both know of on Tuk'ata. All they can really recall is that Tuk'ata don't travel alone, and that Zyla is right that Tuk'ata don't tend to travel long distances.

[ThreeBFour]

Waz'aru glances back at Karan examining the ground as he finishes comparing knowledge with Arca. "From what we can remember, the Tuk'ata travel in groups, so I'm guessing there are more tracks or they are smart enough to step in each other's prints. He says as they step back to the group, adding "Karan, did you find something else back there?"

[Doctor Who]

Ka'ran looks up.

"I had the same thought. The prints aren't evenly or consistently worn, nor is the gait quite constant for the depth or toe-spacing on all the tracks. Some of the toes even seem to blend together, as if multiple toes were pressed into the same tracks. Although this would take some serious training to succeed at this."

[ShadoWarrior]

Arca comments, "Normal animals should not be intelligent enough to obscure their numbers by carefully stepping over tracks previously laid down. If we face intelligent pack hunters we must be extremely cautious as we proceed."