Shadows of Bankor

Yesterday's field trip with Liua had been an unexpected learning opportunity for both of them. Rather than a gangster's secret stash they had come across something much more sinister: part of a mask, and visions of Darth Zash. Xanna was starting to wonder if a quick garbage disposal trip to the local star wasn't such a bad idea after all. However, her gut told her that the Temple would have the resources to deal with this properly, even if its solution really was to hurl the thing into the sun...

Seated at a table with the object wrapped in cloth and sitting in a protective transparasteel box she perused the archives for anything related to red ceramic masks, cross referenced with Darth Zash.

As Verse wandered the halls of the temple, she found herself wandering past the room where Xanna was doing her research. With the door open; perhaps by accident; Verse could be seen moving past... then walking backwards and having her face peek around the corner again.

"...what'cha doing?" she asked, interrupting whatever flow of concentration Xanna had managed to secure for herself.

Having never been the best student of lore this was hard going. Her eyes flashed up to the door but she settled in a relaxed posture when she saw who it was.

"Oh, hello Verse. How are you feeling this morning?" Having lost a hand the day before it seemed an appropriate question to ask. She looked back at the box and the datapad.

"Research. Not my strongest suit if I am being honest with myself."

"Still sore. Did you know that sleeping with your face on a hard metal hand is uncomfortable?" The way she delivered the line, it was almost as if she was asking a serious question.

...

It might've been a serious question.

"Anyway," she entered the room and came closer, looking at the box and datapad. "Researching what?"

Xanna decided to play it safe. "No I did not know that. I mean, I once fell asleep on a soup ladle after a particularly long shift and that was uncomfortable." So clearly she had some experience.

"Well. Yesterday Liua and I went on an expedition to the Shattered graveyards. We did not find what we were looking for. Hmm, or maybe we did, anyway we found force visions and a piece of a red mask." She tapped the box. "So now I am trying to find references to such a thing. Also to a Darth Zash, and some Jedi: Lunda Mae, Layne someone..."

"Huh," she hadn't heard *any* of those names before. Or if she had, she'd clearly forgotten about them. "Have you tried asking Master Surro? Maybe she has records on these Jedi?"

"I think that is a very good idea, I just wanted to make an attempt at looking them up first for myself." She smiled a little. "I think there could be records. One of the Jedi in the group we saw seemed to be a leader, and at least one had been a Sith at some point. You would think these sorts of things would be recorded."

"Hmm, how long ago was this, though? I mean, I guess it's from back when the Jedi helped the Aznuri on Bankor the first time, right? Then... this temple is from after that, I believe? Sounds like you're right, there should be records of it here. Maybe master Hin would know these names too, but... I mean this was thousands of years ago, and there've been so many Jedi and... Sith... who knows?"

"Good morning Jedi Knights, I suspected I as needed," he said.

"Are you always listening?" Liua asked already knowing the answer.

"Of course, I hear and see everything," Master Surro said with a broad smile.

"Goodmorning, Master Surro. Padawan Liua."

Presumably Liua had come in after her, right as the holographic Jedi Master popped in.

She then turned to Xanna. "There goes your chance to do it before she gets here."

"Oh well. Good morning Master Surro. As you can see I am not making a lot of progress." She smiled and gestured to the datapad then looked over at Liua. "If the end of this research culminates in 'You should throw this thing into the sun' then I am never going to hear the end of it."

"I think that Verse is correct, and this artifact and the visions Liua and I experienced are from the first time the Jedi arrived and helped the Aznuri. So, does Darth Zash, a crimson mask, a Jedi named Layne, and so on lead to anything in the archive?"

"I am the archive and yes, I recognize all of those things besides the mask, well not directly," Surro responded.

"Assuming we are speaking of Jedi Knight, Layne Hoshin, then yes I am very familiar with her and Darth Zash by reputation and my time on Ziost."

Verse had no real investment in the revelation that knowledge was about to be imparted about these individuals, but she was excited for those who did have such investment, and gave Xanna a look of 'see? everything works out!' before waiting to see what questions and answers might be heard.

"Ah, that is good news then!" She nodded encouragingly. "Well, we saw the after image of what seemed to be some sort of rescue mission and escape attempt. I think Darth Zash was escaping on a ship, and these Jedi were chasing her. They seemed most concerned with redeeming a Lunda Mae? Does this makes sense to you?"

"It does, this was during an encounter here... well in orbit of Bankor, Darth Zash had convinced a Jedi padawan to assist her," she replied calmly.

"It was a messy affair but the Jedi saved Lunda, although Darth Zash escaped back to Imperial space. Her apprentice stayed with the Jedi for a time before he too was lost in a space accident."

"But who were these people? I've never heard of this Darth Zash, or Layne Hoshin, or Lunda Mae. I know the Jedi were here to help the Aznuri, but this is the first I've actually heard any actual names."

Xanna nodded. "I would not have heard these names if not for the force vision, and that may have been related to this." She tapped the container with the mask fragment. "There was also a togruta who may have once been a Sith. A dark-skinned human woman who seemed to be the leader. A Pantoran in a suit of armour."

"Tell me this vision in full or as much as you both recall," she responded.

Xanna nodded and started at the beginning with the vision of the Blonde woman who they thought was almost certainly Darth Zash based on later visions. "So we could feel...isolation? We heard lightsabers and then the visions began with her. She was talking about stopping the Emperor, something about searching his lab?"

Xanna described the events from the beginning to the end, with Liua likely jumping in to correct or add to points in different places.

Surro listened and then when they completed the story she said, “This is the incident that occurred some three thousand years ago during a Mandalorian occupation of Bankor, this Darth Zash is… ahem, was a powerful Sith and master of the Dark Side responsible for the death of many Jedi in her time.”

“This Emperor, in my time he was an immortal, being at least rumored to be, so until his own people rose up against him and slew him. He was powerful could extend his will to control billions of beings at once through the Force and it was unsure if death could even stop him.”

She then said, “It was the incident on Bankor and the exploration of this dark side temple that sparked the creation of the Sixth Line to counter his evil directly. My first mission as a Sixth Line was to go undercover on Ziost and observe the situation and experienced his power firsthand… it was chilling.”

“The rest in your vision… there was in my time Grand Master Baesal Zyn, though she was still a long way from that position at that time. Jedi Knight Tethys, Jedi Padawan Layne Hoshin, and Senator Durasay Mixo, who we believed to be a secret Sith apprentice to an unknown Sith Lord. Jedi Padawan Lunda Mae learned a hard lesson that day and made her a better Jedi in time.”

“This mask fragment, we believe it belonged to the secret master of the ex-Senator,” she finished. “How it got to Bankor is a mystery.”

The story sent a chill through her. The name of the Senator made her spine tingle. "So. This is all connected. The Sixth Line, the Sith Emperor, Darth Zash." She nodded at the box. "And then there is this. You are aware that Xanna Teevou is a pseudonym? My mother was a Mixo. She always used to drone on about the long and distinguished history of Magical Space Wizards in our family."

Verse got a dumbfounded look on her face. "Wow, so you have a personal connection to all this then? No wonder you got these visions!"

"It has come to you for a reason, this design it reminds me of the Sith species but older and more primal," she said looking at the shattered mask.

Xanna had taken out the piece so that they could look at it more closely. She looked at the hologram.

"An ancient primal evil mask has come to me for a reason... but what? Do you think perhaps it belonged to Senator Mixo, or his master? Was that the final spirit that we saw?"

Her fingers drilled on the table. "So. Am I supposed to purify it? Destroy it? Or find out more about these older Sith?" She looked around at Verse, Liua, and Master Surro, then back at what was left of the mask.

"This is a mystery to be explored, but I may have a clue as to where to begin," she brings up a stellar map from her era and ca modern stellar map.

"Notice anything different?"

OOC: Astrogation or Lore at Average.