The Children of the Stars

Tomb Raiders

Allana had a bad feeling about this.

She didn't announce that, as she was the first one to enter the tomb of Marka Ragnos, and thought it would be tempting fate to speak it aloud. But she thought it all the same.

Getting in the tomb had been tricky enough. The gilded frame to the entrance of the one-grand tomb now was rubble blocking the open door. Sear marks revealed the source of the damage.

"Mum cut it down," Allana had realized. "To keep us and others from finding this."

The Jedi then got to work, lifting the obstacles that would have taken a solid day of work for the archaeologists, whether it would have been through manual labor or pyrotechnics.

Nellith had wanted to fire off a warning shot with her blaster, in case Sith acolytes or smugglers had gotten inside through some secret passage or something to a similar effect.

Aya talked her out of that one, explaining that they wanted to investigate the temples once the Jedi were done.

Now, they entered the gaping maw that was the Tomb of Marka Ragnos.

Allana ignited her saber-staff and held it aloft, lighting the rust-colored dirt that was packed into the tiles on the ground.

For all of the grandeur that the Sith had attempted to engage in, it was a sorry sigh in comparison to Hapan splendor.

Allya, she sounded like one of her ladies-in-waiting.

How Allana missed them.

Still, there was work to be done. She took a step forward, and as she did, the large lanterns ignited, lighting up the long passage from the antechamber to very heart of where Ragnos was laid to rest.

The long ledge in question was a bridge without any railings, encompassed by what seemed to be a bottomless pit.

Kyp peered down at the shadows, untouched by the light of the Sith lantern, and let out a low whistle.

"Ragnos sure knows how to decorate the place."

"We can give critiques to his design team later," Nellith assured him. She then glanced up at the lanterns. "I will say those were a pretty touch. Would've broken up the red and more red, though. Maybe a nice green as an accent, or gold—"

Kyp gently elbowed her, and she just rolled her eyes. Then the two of them sobered.

Allana took a deep breath, and stepped onto the bridge. She was relived when it held her weight.

"It should be fine to hold all of us," Allana assured the others."

"Yeah, Sith architecture is pretty sturdy," Aya agreed. "The Sith might have been bastards, but they did understand good infrastructure."

Allana was very grateful for that fact. And the lanterns were a great source of light, blocking out all shadows except for those at the bottom of the pit.

And yet, despite the lack of anything really to set it off, Allana couldn't help but feel like something was wrong. Despite the heat of the Korriban desert, so similar to the other deserts she'd been to, it was so cold.

She kept expecting something to pop out from behind the gilded rail around the ceiling or the stark pillars lining the interior walls.

But nothing did.

Except for the adventurers there now, nothing even breathed inside of the tomb of Marka Ragnos.

Eventually the bridge led to two large doors with ancient carvings in it. Aya was quick to whip out her datapad and sketch out what she saw.