How's the accommodations? [EM, D7]

[Layne Hoshin]

After a quick breakfast, Layne decided to try and check up on her couch-crashing guest again. Hopefully he'd be receptive. She needed answers.

So she knocked on the door that led to the space within which Baras had sealed himself away from the world.

[Dapper Dog]

Baras was meditating on the floor and looks up and opens his eyes speaking, "Layne, have you ever played Dejarik?"

[Layne Hoshin]

"I... have not," she said, a bit taken back by the question and not sure what this was leading to.

[Dapper Dog]

"It is a strategy game where you control holographic pieces, the strategy is to defeat your enemy. Through feints, superior strategy, and sacrifice. Every move has a counter, it requires seeing the possible counters and anticipating them. Knowing when a piece must be sacrificed for greater gains, even when that piece has great value. There are moments though that defy strategy, when sheer intuition supersedes logic."

"You have questions about the Voice," he finishes.

[Layne Hoshin]

"So, you lied to me." She crossed her arms. "It wasn't Magpie's deception that brought me to the Voice's stronghold instead of hers, but yours."

[Dapper Dog]

"Does that upset you, apprentice?" he responds. "I gave you an honor that few in the Empire will ever have, you have stood in the presence of the Emperor if only through his Voice."

[Layne Hoshin]

"And then lied to her."

[Dapper Dog]

"Politics is not about truth, it is about the message, apprentice. The Voice heard what she needed to hear," he says with a slight smirk.

"Now we just have to survive to see that plan to fruition."

[Layne Hoshin]

"And what if I don't want to? There's a lot of people gunning for you right now. I've even had offers from other darths. What's to stop me from selling you out and reaping the rewards?"

[Dapper Dog]

"If all you care about is petty rewards then do so, Layne. You will be just another Sith reaching for scraps stabbing anyone in the back just for a shred of respect of and power. But you should act on your treachery quickly, because those that stand against me, die," he counters.

[Layne Hoshin]

"Like Sylvain's mother?"

[Dapper Dog]

"Like Sylvain's mother?"

"Her time is coming... I have arranged the pieces. She has entrapped herself. Which begs some caution, it is as if she wants this strike to come... an obvious trap."

"So I contemplate, the dark side has freed me from mundane concerns. Soon it will free me from the yoke of the Dark Council, she is my final obstacle, Layne," Baras says.

"When the time comes, You will end the the greatest threat to the Empire and cement our power. You will be my first Sword."

[Layne Hoshin]

"I've heard these kind of promises before, and they're starting to sound hollow."

[Dapper Dog]

"I've heard these kind of promises before, and they're starting to sound hollow."

"You have no patience, that is telling flaw," he says rising to his feet. "It can take decades for an apprentice to earn the approval of their Master, you expect me to shower you with accolades after mere months."

[Layne Hoshin]

"All your other apprentices seem to end up dead before they get any accolades," she said, tensing up a little as he rose to his feet.

[Dapper Dog]

"Afraid?" Baras says flatly. "My other apprentices die because they are weak."

"Do you know the ways of a lolthian spider?"

[Layne Hoshin]

"This isn't fear," she said, defiant. "And I have no idea what a lolthian spider even is."

[Dapper Dog]

"Perhaps not. Lolthian spiders are found on a Drommund Kaas, in the southern hemisphere native to a wretched archipelago... the creatures grow to the size of your thumb. When they give birth to a brood they have hundreds of little creatures. The creatures consume each other in their frenzy to free themselves from the egg sac. The strong eat the strong, it is savage and violent."

"Yet it is not the strongest spiders that find escape from the slaughter, or even sometimes the cleverest. It is the patient ones... the ones that linger... even play dead that find freedom. The others tire themselves in battle and are easily overcome by the patient spider."

Baras says, "It took me much time to understand that lesson, apprentice. Yet now I am the most powerful and feared of Sith Lords. This did not happen by accident, you would throw that away because you think I don't treat you fairly?"

[Layne Hoshin]

"It has been a year now, and all I've done is kill for you. You have taught me barely anything. I will not be a tool to be discarded when the time is right."

[Dapper Dog]

"Every kill has honed your skills and connection the Dark Side," Darth Baras responds.

"I have kept you in my circle and made you privy to my greatest plots. You should rethink your assessment of your role in my power base."

[Layne Hoshin]

It hadn't honed her connection to the dark side at all, even Layne could tell. If it had, she wouldn't have been so morally conflict as of late.

"It doesn't feel as if any of that is the case."

[Dapper Dog]

"Explain," he commands.

[Layne Hoshin]

"You haven't told me shit about your plots. Being a sacrificial pawn in them doesn't mean I'm a *part* of them."

She paused for a moment, wondering if she should keep talking or not. But as usual, her mouth decided for her.

"And Oshin showed me what the light side can do. Frankly, I'm beginning to wonder if maybe it isn't the better choice of the two."

[Dapper Dog]

Darth Baras bristles at the mention of the light, the room feeling colder, rage boiling under the surface of the placid Sith. He speaks firmly, “You are laboring under a misconception, Layne. I do not coddle you and I am willing to sacrifice your life precisely because a Sith understands fear more than any other living creature. You will die or you will succeed and be stronger for it.”

“If you do not fear me, then more fool you, you know the extent of my reach, the skill of my fighting techniques, and the depths I will go for vengeance. You have never cared to know before the purpose of your actions, why the sudden need for understanding now, apprentice?”

“The Light has no answers for you, it is the path of weakness. Your skill with the saber has improved, your understanding of the Force has improved and so to will your connection to it. You have done these things yourself, but I have guided you and molded you into a Sith worthy to be feared and respected,” he counters.

“A Sith seizes their destiny, if you wish to be a more vital part of my plans. A true apprentice in my inner circle, then show me what you have learned,” the Sith lord says as his lightsaber flies to his hand.

“Prove to me you are Sith… or die a weakling blinded by the light.”

OOC: Darth Baras has Adversary 3, Defense 3 and uses the Triumph to take on Defensive Stance as free Manuever before combat.

Darth Baras - Cool - Init: 4eP+1eB 4 successes, 5 advantage, 1 Triumph

[Layne Hoshin]

Vigilance/Init: 3eA 3 successes, 1 advantage


(not sure if it's kosher to start with lightsaber in hand? And what about activating enhance for +1brawn in exchange for 2 strain just prior to combat start, like when she tensed up when he stood up?)