*Hob wanders.* (Mordrid)

[Evil Hobgoblin]

The hallways in this corner of the castle are seeped with darkness and death, of pain and sorrow, of terror and rage.

~ Mordrid,~ Hob calls out mentally. ~ I wish t' speak with ye regarding the nature of things.~

[Count Mordrid]

The wind seems to whisper back to Hob, traces of a voice embeded deep within. After several moments, he finds himself able to listen to their tongue.

I'm here, old man... What is it you need?

As Hob rounds a corner and enters a caved in room, he notices a figure laying down atop a pile of ruins and stones. His eyes are absent of anything but darkness; It was mordrid.

[Evil Hobgoblin]

Hob wanders up to the rock pile and stops. ~ My apprentice has the spirit of a Jedi latched t' her mind. As I know little of spirits and how they are formed, or what their natures are, I came t' ask ye about the nature of the dead.~

[Count Mordrid]

Mordrid's voice echoed, but the echo, for as full as it could sound, was still empty. It existed only in Hob's mind, now.

The nature of any one spirit can only be wooven by the endless fabric of the Force. Because of this, spirits have a powerful and inate control of tat which surrounds them... However, it is also because of this that they can easily be controlled, if one knows how.

I owe you a debt, and so I will provide you with my assistance should you request it...

Mordrid longed to remember what it was to feel his own body hear... but it had been so long ago, and now all that could be felt was the lack thereof.

[Evil Hobgoblin]

Hob replies in like fashion to the spirit's words, although to his own ears, his mental voice sounds more full of energy than Mordrid's. ~ I wish t' learn these methods of controlling spir'ts ye speak of. Such techniques will undoubtedly aid me in my search for a cure for my apprentice.~

[Count Mordrid]

I am here only because I found my way outside of the Force. It is the living energy of those here within the Castle that keeps me alive... only because in the instance you freed me, you bound me to these walls.

Bring you here the Book of Anger, and through these walls we shall once again walk.

A blinding flash of light snapped before Hob's eyes, and then the room had changed... It was now one of the most intriguing places he had seen in all his time at Bast. All sorts of tubes made of ancient perma-plastics bubbled with glowing liquids of all colors, many of them streaked up along the walls until they came to small trickles, or fell into viles drop by drop.

Smoke trailed toward's Hob quickly, but past the door, it could not go.

I'll be waiting. Go, Hob. Go find the book.

[Evil Hobgoblin]

Hob ambled out of the hallway and headed for a secret entry to his own chambers. Once there, he retrieved the book from where he had been keeping it, gripping it tightly in his scarred right hand. The pain did not seem to daunt him as it once had.

Thirty minutes later, the dwarf had returned to the room where he'd found Mordrid, clutching the book tightly in one hand.

[Count Mordrid]

Thank you, Hob. Step inside...

Somewhere in the reaches of Mordrid's scattered thoughts, the phrase compleated it's self.

My parlor.

As the dwarf made his way into the room, the outside of the castle seemed to be nearly non-existant in the presence of Mordrid's playful chuckle. It had all gone by like another passing notion. A trick of the mind.

I dwelled here almost a century ago... It might have been longer. Memories can misplace themselves soemtimes.

Whisps of smoke blew past Hob, and then he saw Mordrid in as substantial a form as any other living being residing on Vjun.

"The book is only needed to summon up those things which only pain can bring to the surface. There are other other ways," Mordrid's hand motioned towards the potions that brewed atop his many tables, "to reach such levels of suffering. The question is how much must be endured before the ripples are enough to swallow you into the pond."

[Evil Hobgoblin]

Hob begins musing to himself. ~ So the level of power comes from the level of anger, and the level of anger comes from the level of pain, and the level of pain comes from anywhere it can... yes, it makes sense now... do continue.~

[Count Mordrid]

"Yes... Suffering leads to the Dark Side. I beleive lord Vader once quoted so to me, but who he quoted, I know not. There is more than just releasing these destructive emotions and reactions: They must be harnessed and properly controlled... otherwise, they will destroy you, as they've destroyed most others.

Take note of some exmaples... Jeseth Cloak, who began his journey among the Jedi: the power that came with the knowledge he attained has utterly corrupted his soul, and his physical form it's self has suffered as a result. It has served to make him more powerful, but at a cost...

Nay Haclyon, better known to you as Delirion. Her mind has been ravaged with pain and torment, nothing of it what it once might have might.

And perhaps one of the more outwardly extreme examples... Darth Rane. All of them began their path without an understanding of what kind of control they would have needed, and all have pried a due price in learning. You too, will pay a price... as even I once did."

Mordrid holds his hand up, letting it vanish momentarily into a cloud of shadows.

[Evil Hobgoblin]

Hob raises his own closed fist into the air and catches sight of the scar on his arm he received during the massacre at Talesia. On his right arm it lies, and though it was originally in the shape of a blaster burn, the energizing of The Book of Anger had warped and lengthened it. It was now long and wavy, as though it followed one of his blood vessels, and it stretched to the middle of his right hand.

He clenched the hand, and the scar straightened and bulged outward. Hob has already paid a lesser price to be able to do what he can. Now, he will pay more to do more.

~ Let us begin, Mordrid,~ Hob says with his eyes still on the scar. ~ The power anxiously awaits me.~

[Count Mordrid]

"As you wish, Hob."

Mordrid's form lifted it's self from the seat in which it lay, moving about freely. The seemingly fluorescent lightening which emanated forth from the tubes of phosphorus liquids and concoctions continued to bath both of the Dark Jedi. Mordrid walked past it all, stepping outside the door... and into a different Bast Castle - A Bast Castle where was not merely in the past, but in the present.

A ghastly form covered in blackened armour suddenly made it's way down the end of the corridor, a strange breather attached to it's face. The sound of hissing and panting could be heard even as it faded to nothingness.

"Come, lets find you're friend."

Mordrid walked in, fading slightly as he got farther from Hob. The small dark creature was inclined to follow.

[Evil Hobgoblin]

The blackened mask conjured up nightmares in the minds of people it had never met. The glove had choked people to death that it had never touched. Respirator noises came from lungs that had reputedly breathed lava and lived to continue on.

Of all the Force users that had existed in recent history, Darth Vader was the fiercest and most lethally capricious.

Hob followed Mordrid, his curiosity piqued. True, he had lived beneath Bast since its' construction, but that did not mean he lived with or among its' occupants. In fact, Hob had not wandered freely his domain until after Vader had died. He had spied on Vader, and on the occupants that had followed the Dark Lord of the Sith, but it had all been from closed vents and concealed nooks.

Hob had learned what the Dark Jedi were about by spying on those people. The basic techniques that he had come to use had been derived from countless hours of self-teaching among the chambers of his lair.

It just made sense that the future of Hob's power lay in the past he had been unable to witness fully.

Vader's image entered a room ahead of Mordrid and Hob, and Hob scurried to follow.

[Count Mordrid]

"Where is Count Mordrid? I am asking you... for the last time!"

"I am here, Lord Vader."

"You're treachery has gone unpunished one too many times, Count Mordrid. The Emperor has requested that I see to this task myself."

A saber blared to life across the room in the dark cloaked figures hand, the second and more slender man activating a purple saber. Hob and Mordrid watched from outside the door as the trauma continued to unfold.

The man dressed in the dark purple garment deflected away Vader's strike, kicking the sith lord straight to the chest - it had little effect. Vader struck down the man's saber back handed him across the face, sending blood gushing forth from his mouth. Everything blurred as only a shadow could be seen on the wall, headless, with blood spattered about the candle-lit floor.

Vader took a few deep breaths, the respirator making his presence more than known to all. A few other Dark Jedi watched as the Sith Lord walked foward, his saber deactivating. There had been nothing graceful about the Dark Father's attacks, but the mere size and force of the man had been enough to triumph over Mordrid's more graceful and skilled technique.




"Lord vader never did like me... or my parents; I beleive they died shortly afterwards."

The room seemed to grow placid once more, devoid of images, only a large onyx and durasteel statue of Darth Vader standing errect within the room, imposing it's presence upon the two watchers.

"Do you know this one that you seek, by his name?"

[Evil Hobgoblin]

The Hobgoblin began postcognition techniques, trying to recall the memory of the name he had dredged out of the spirit affecting his apprentice.

~ I have indeed,~ he chuckled, with his brow furrowed in concentration. ~ I thought it wise to drag it from him before allowing him to flee. The name has always been a link to the past that the present can use.~

Hob's brow uncreased itself and his lips parted in a toothy grin. ~ Jaherrrin Da'Liteheart, he called himself.~

[Count Mordrid]

"Then call upon him, with that."

Mordrid's finger pointed to The Book of Anger, directing Hob's attention.

"You have done it one before... and you need but bring him before us now. I do suggest you have some plan to this, for I cannot assure you that I have any more control of these spirits than you do... Severing one's self from the void carries a price, as well."


(ooc) TTT

[Cardinal Aiyalin]

**Cardinal's head hurt, the strain of seeing down such a dim corridor was finally getting to her. A message.. one from her master, drew her deep into the confines of Bast. Shivering slightly, the young woman drew her black cloak tighter around her. Hob's mind guided her to him, drawing her soul, and that of her passenger.

Why dost thou go whenever that weakling calls, you stupid girl... thou hast a more powerful teacher in myself, not in that malformed creature who calls himself Hobgoblin

"Shut up.. I'm not listening to you again today. Won't you just stay QUIET!!!"

**Her yell echoed down the hall, distorting itself in the recesses of the hallway. Card was angry with herself, she knew answering him would only provoke more sarcasm. She muted his rantings to a buzz as she walked on, her heels making the only noise in the unknown section of Bast. Card rarely strayed down this way, and if Hob's presence hadn't been quiding her, she would have already gotten lost. The door she was looking for lay at the end of the hallway; her stomach knotted itself with a sense of dread.

**She opened the door, and inside stood her master and the ghost, Mordrid.

LEAVE STUPID GIRL!

**His voice sounded frantic, screaming inside her mind. Cardinal's eyes unfocused for a second, and she hesitated in the doorway. Shaking her head slightly, she nodded to both beings in the room.

"Yes, Hob... you called me for something important?"

[Evil Hobgoblin]

~ I did Cardinal,~ Hob stated clearly. His eyes stared at and through the head of his apprentice, where he knew another being lay. ~ Come, stand before me.~

Cardinal hesitated, as if listening to some inner voice, then approached the place where Hob and Mordrid stood. ~ Excellent,~ Hob stated, placing the Book of Anger on the floor. His intuition told him that what was required was not a vocal spell, but instead intense mental concentration.

Force swirled and twisted around Cardinal's head in strong gusts. ~ Jaherrrin Da'Liteheart! Come forth! Come forth and face the Hobgoblin!!~

The Force continued to spin, forming a vortex that, if Hob had done his work correctly, would pull the Jedi out of Cardinal's head long enough for Mordrid and himself to do their work.

~ Mordrid, be ready,~ Hob spoke.