Of ghosts and goblins

[Vega Van-Derveld]

Illusive.

He thought this the best term to describe the Hobgoblin. Though he was spoken of as the gatekeeper to the castle, it was rare that visitor caught sight of him. The dark dwarf had a knack of being visible only when he wished, and surprising even the most confident with his appearance. It was for this reason that the Lupine stood just within the locked gates of Bast castle, eyes raised to the sky. Sooner, or later more likely, the keeper would show himself to question his intentions. After all, it would be hard not to notice Vega, who had been for the past short while expanding his force presence to such a degree that it had welled outwards to become a great beacon within the bastion.

A siren that in time would draw the Hobgoblin to him.

[Evil Hobgoblin]

A short figure stumped out of the hall leading to Bast's interior. It walked up to Vega, stopped, and beckoned him. "Come," the figure spoke, and began to walk back the way it had come.

[Vega Van-Derveld]

The Lupine turned from the gates and began pacing after Hob. As he walked behind, his mind wandered to the idea that the gatekeeper already knew what he had in mind to ask of him, and so wondered exactly where he was being taken. Vega said nothing.

[Evil Hobgoblin]

The figure led Vega down to a small closet somewhere below the entrance level of the castle. It stopped by the door and pointed. "Knock."

[Vega Van-Derveld]

A smirk edged onto his lips, yet none the less he rose one hand and rapped his knuckles against the door with a loud thud, thud, thud.

[Evil Hobgoblin]

WHAM!

The door had opened suddenly, slamming into Vega and revealing a second Hob. When the seeker had stopped stumbling and begun to glare angrily at Hob, he responded.

"When you want my attention, knock on my door. Don't bend and warp energy fields I have carefully placed simply to be noticed!"

With a sidelong glance at his illusory double, Hob waved his hand and dispelled the image. Oddly enough, the double seemed to grin just before vanishing, something that Hob was not doing...

But maybe it was Vega's imagination.

"Now." Hob's voice brought Vega's attention squarely onto himself and the impatience he was projecting. "Mr. Vaguely Van Derveld... what do you want?"

[Vega Van-Derveld]

For a moment his sight lingered on where the 'copy' of Hob had been. An amused look glinted in his eyes as he looked back to the small figure, his expression showing some frustration.

"To be able to do that," he said with a gesture to where the other Hob had stood.

[Evil Hobgoblin]

Hob's brow furrowed. "And what is that to me? Are you offering me something in return for instruction? If so, speak up- my time is valuable and some lost moments take much time and planning to recover."

[Vega Van-Derveld]

He mimicked Hob, raising an eyebrow. Vega rose his shoulders.

"What would you have me offer you?"

[Evil Hobgoblin]

Hob's eyes narrowed, then he smiled thinly. "You are pert, but that matters not. I have somewhat in mind for you. Come."

Hob turned and entered his closet, heading directly to the back where a heavy dresser sat, bolted to the floor. Hob took hold of one leg and lifted, revealing a dark hole: a passage, obviously, to somewhere vega did not know.

Hob gestured. "Enter, boy."

(ooc) For more info on what Vega will see in the first of Hob's chambers, read this thread (http://www.swforums.net/forum/showthread.php?s=&threadid=19490)

[Vega Van-Derveld]

He knelt, obeying, and peered down into the shadowy passage for a moment. One hand tightly held one side of the opening as he swung both legs around down the thin opening before allowing himself to drop downwards.

A blur of movement, and he landed, candlelight illuminating his confused expression. He surveyed the area in silence, casting a glance back up the hole long enough to know that Hob would soon follow. He paced forward out of the way of the drop.

This was most certainly not what he had expected. It was a little retreat, with dainty potted plants and intricate muriels pinned up to its walls. A little further away forward was a low roofed arch way, which apparently opened out into another underground chamber.

"... Impressive."

[Evil Hobgoblin]

"Of course."

Hob gripped the wall three feet above the hole, clinging to it with feet and fingers and seeming like he should fall, not remain aloft.

"I carved the rock beneath Bast with my own hands into everything you see now and more. It is no illusion."

"Neither is this." Hob took one of his hands away from the wall and held it out. Above it, a fireball appeared, crackling and snapping.

"Can you do that?" he asked.

[Vega Van-Derveld]

The thought of someone actually physically carving this place was impressive, though with the aid of the Force Vega imagined it wouldn't take any time at all to heave large chunks of stone from their place. Then, watching with a slight smile as Hob created a flame within his palm, he shook his head.

"No..."

He extended one hand out to the side and cupped it for a moment, as white tendrils snaked out around his flesh from his wrist downwards. The light rippled inward and hissed with a static-like noise before beginning to rip and tear away at its, whipping into the air around his palm violently. The miniature storm in his hand grew, so that the lightning encirciled his forearm in a bright sphere, before dying in a flash.

"Just that."

[Evil Hobgoblin]

(ooc) Psst! Hob did carve it with his own hands! Just so you don't get the wrong impression. :)

(ic)

Hob dropped from his perch on the wall, one hand out with the fireball hovering over it. "It is fine control one must have to create fire from nothing," he explained. "It is not the build up and sudden release of energy that lightning is. The friction of air molecules causes heat- create enough heat and even air will burn."

Hob lifted his hand. "Come- sense the flame. See all that it is. Then you will be ready to begin."

[Vega Van-Derveld]

Obedient, he looked to the flame, trying to assertain what he was intended to derive from the fire as he focused upon it. A brow lofted on his face as he watched, seemingly pouring his full focus into it, yet mentally perplexed.

"It's fire. What else is there to sense or see?"

[Evil Hobgoblin]

"There is its' form to see."

Hob lifted the fireball and stared at it himself. "Natural fire is chaos, the breakdown of matter by an invasion of energy. This is chaos made orderly. Even in its' acceleration of the air around it, there is a limit placed upon the fire by the fuel- the energy- I give it."

Hob held it out to Vega for a bit longer so he could get a good impression, then threw it at a nearby unlit torch. The fireball impacted and started burning immediately, greedily eating away at the fuel it had been given.

Hob pointed at the torch. "Examine that flame, and you will see how much less order there is now."

[Vega Van-Derveld]

Vega set his sight upon the torch. Indeed the Hobgoblin was right. Under the close vice of the Dark Jedi, the fireball had seemed so much less violent, where as now it viciously devoured away all around it, in a constant attempt to grow and increase in power. He thought it less efficient in this manner; in Hob's control the ball had been concentrated so that it remained fairly dormant, yet at the same time had potential for destruction. This unbrideled version of the flames was so much less promising, and would dwindel into ashes within a matter of time.

"Am I correct in assuming this is in reference to our own abilities?"

The assumption he had made was comparing the Sith and Dark Jedi with the fire. On one hand there were the Sith, the flame in the torch, a powerful source yet doomed to flicker into nothingness after their short-lived burst of strength. And on the other, the Dark Jedi, apparently much smaller in size and power on the surface, though truthfully the true power, mastered and controlled.

[Evil Hobgoblin]

Hob's eyebrows lifted with interest. "A well-drawn parallel, my apprentice. Yes, restraint and control is a necessary ingredient for true power. If it becomes obvious that Force will always be used, it will encourage preparation for such an outcome. A lack of predictability and encouragement of hope bring much stabler results."

"That was not, however, the thrust of my lesson. The wielding of the power of illusion relies on the strictest control of light, heat, and sound. Fire is light and heat; mastering the creation, manipulation, and use of it is key to creating any illusion not based in the intangibilities of another's mind."

Hob then turned to Vega, grinning. "Imagine the reaction of a Jedi, for example, who believed a fireball of yours to be a mental illusion, only to rush into the flames and get burned."

"But let us return to philosophy for a moment."

"Lies, deceit, mistrust; they are all powerful tools. It is the nature of many Sith to overuse them to the point where they cannot escape the web they have sewn. If ever you are endangered by Jedi, remember this: two parts truth to one part lie is the mix for their doom."

Hob then turned back to the torch, which was still burning away. With a curious twist of his hand, the fire leapt off the torch and floated gently over to the dwarf again. "We must have you work at making heat. Can you transfer energy from one place to another?"

[Vega Van-Derveld]

"I have been able to pass dark force energy from my own body into that of another, but ... aside from this I can't say I have."

It would be seemed, probably, as though Vega was very much an amateur in the Force, considering his rank. Admitedly he may not have had the skills of others in elementalism, necromancing or illusionary techniques, but what skill he did have was far from weak. All it would take was some instruction from Hob for him to gain a better understanding and inevitably prowess in area's he'd not yet even touched upon.

[Evil Hobgoblin]

"Very well, then. We shall bring my skills and yours together, and through their synergy shall I instruct you." Hob settled into a cross-legged sitting position on the floor. "Sit."

When Vega had finished obeying, the dwarf extended a hand and took one of Vega's. "Now," he said. "Gather the Force within you, and transfer it to me through my hand."

[Vega Van-Derveld]

He pressed his palm to the Hobgoblins and nodded somewhat. Transferring his energy sounded like a draining process, that would leave him in a weakened state, yet he had no doubt that it was all for good cause. There would be some purpose behind it, and hence he would do as the dark one asked.

Vega closed his eyes and let his mind focus upon the darkside, willing memories of hatred to the surface to feed the flames of the Force. Slowly, bit by bit, he passed the intangible power into his Masters being. With each ounce of energy that left him, his body physically seemed to sag.

Eventually, after a short period he opened his eyes and pulled his hand away, signifying that he had given as much as he was willing and able.

[Evil Hobgoblin]

"Now," Hob told Vega. "I shall show you how to create friction, which is key to creating heat."

The dwarf stood and took a few steps away from Vega, then stopped. He stretched his palm out and closed his eyes. "There is now a barrier between us," he said. "The air. Though it is possible for me to return your energy to you without losing any, that is not my purpose here. Open your mind, and focus it and on your skin. As the energy I return to you leaves my hand, it will encounter a new medium to pass through- the air- and lose energy because of it. Such will also happen when it encounters your body. When you understand how the transfer creates resistance, you will be ready to create resistance of your own."

With Vega's assenting nod, Hob released the energy from his hand, directing it towards his sensing apprentice.

[Vega Van-Derveld]

He was no scientist, but he understood some basic particle theory. As the Force driven energy left Hob, the molecules of its being collided with those of the air in the atmosphere around them. By doing so, they gained more momentum, careening about at a higher speed, and thus causing more meetings of the particles. Due to the fact that Hob was controlling the stream of energy, the particles could not burst outwards as they wished, and were confined into moving towards Vega.

Upon nearing his hand, and the solid mass, the density of the particles became thicker, and as the dark energy collided unnoticably with his skin, it was propelled at a greater rate than previously, causing a build around his fingertips.

Vega rose his eyebrows upwards as a slight warmth brushed his palm, growing steadily hotter as the remainder of the essence flooded back to him.

[Evil Hobgoblin]

Hob finished the transfer, but remained still. Then he seemed to unstiffen somehow. "Do you understand now?"

The dwarf turned his palm upward and another fireball appeared. He sat, examining it. "Chaos breaks down order much, much easier than it breaks down chaos. Contrarily, order resists chaos much better than it resists other order. To make heat, you must encourage one order that will resist your efforts, and one that will succumb to them. One that will become flame, and one that will separate the flame from the air."

Hob tossed the fireball up and down, then hurled it at Vega. "Catch!"