Jantus sends him a dark glance.

"You really are determined to make this place creepy, aren't you? Yesterday you found nothing but skeletal remains of some ancient species, right? The only reason I'm here is because anything is better than being cooped up in that ship for a week, but there had better not be anything still alive down here."

"We shall see," Cassus responds as he begins to pick his way forward as stealthily as he can.

OOC: Cassus Fett rolled 15 using 1d20+3. Hide.
Cassus Fett rolled 16 using 1d20+3. Move Silently.

“You define creepy as the presence of the living, not the dead?” Dalmar says softly, to Jantus.

"Well, if the thing still living was what killed all the dead..." Jantus murmurs back grimly.

The room in which they find themselves appears also to have been a storage room. It is narrower, but extends further than the room which houses their ship above. They find several more skeletons, however these appear to have been arranged neatly in a corner, and the half dozen of them all lie side by side in a row. Empty crates still line the floor about them, with a single entrance extending from the room at the far wall.

"This is different," Cassus observes in a low tone as he moves over to examine the line of skeletons.

"But still not creepy at all, I'm sure," Dalmar says, wandering over closer to examine the bodies.

OOC: Dalmar Argant rolled 20 using 1d20+15.  Spot Check.

Jantus sends him an unimpressed glance.

Cassus examines the bodies a moment longer before continuing towards the entrance on the other side of the room, unholstering his blaster pistol and holding it before him as he advances.

OOC: Cassus Fett rolled 42 using 1d20+23. Spot.
Cassus Fett rolled 33 using 1d20+23. Listen.

Dalmar follows silently, tendrils of mental energy gently searching for the minds of other sentients in these ruins.

The trio detect no signs of life as they make their way down the long corridor which extends from the entrance room. However, after they have travelled perhaps 100 meters and descended two flights of steep stairs they come across another body. This one has the same, four armed shape as the ones they have previously discovered, however it appears to have died much more recently. A rotting, leathery skin still covers it's skeletal frame, along with greyish ragged hair and a tattered uniform which looks as though it was some kind of green flight suit. He lies face down, and appears to have been attempting to run up the flight of stairs, based on his position. The back of his flight is full of holes and slashes and stained with a dried, black colored blood, which also stains the walls and floor about the corpse.

"Well that looks recent," mutters Jantus, raising his blaster as he glances warily into the gloom of the passage which continues to descent before them.

Dalmar mms.

"Recent indeed. And not by civilized sentients, since they did not bother removing the dead. Nor yet by simple predators, since he has not been eaten. Volath's energy is strong in this place. I doubt the bodies we have seen so far are the only ones who have perished here."

"We should head back to the ship," Jantus advises.

"You would prefer that whoever did this ambushed us while we sleep?" Cassus counters. "We are better off finding them before they find us."

"It would be better if neither of us found each other at all," Jantus mutters as Cassus crouches to examine the body.

"He seems to have been a guard or soldier of some kind," Cassus surmises, turning over the corpse as Jantus makes a disgusted noise.

The deceased being's face is mostly decayed and the front of his suit has a couple of holes which suggest whatever stabbed him from behind pierced entirely through his body. A slugthrower pistol is holstered to his his chest, and does not appear to have been used. On his chest is emblazoned a strange insignia which they do not recognize, featuring a pair of suns with several strange runes beneath it.

"He was obviously frightened, if what slew him terrified him enough that he did not choose to fight back," Dalmar observes, gaze lingering on the unused weapon. "I doubt, however, that he bothered filming his death, so those injuries tell us little."

"Possibly," Cassus allows, "Although it is unlikely that he didn't even draw his weapon. It is more likely that was armed with a rifle of some kind, which his killers then removed or appropriated."

As he speaks, he gestures to several slugthrower pellet casings which lie scattered on the ground at the corner of the steps.

"That, or he had friends who fired on his behalf. It would be odd that an enemy capable of understanding such weapons would take that but neither search his body nor remove his remains," Dalmar muses.

"His friends probably left this place as quickly as they could," Jantus guesses. "Something we would be wise to do. There must be another moon somewhere around here we can fly to with our sunlight drives which isn't infested by whatever monsters reside here."

"Kari has dismantled half the ship," Cassus counters, "I'm not wasting another day reassembling it, only to begin the whole process from the beginning on a moon that may be no different from this one. Zaelinor is far more dangerous than whatever creatures reside here, and he is doubtless searching for us by now."

Dalmar's gaze lingers on the holes in the dead alien's skull.

"Let us hope that you are right."

With that, the trio set off once more, descending down the remainder of the stairs and into the gloom beyond.

OOC: End of Chapter II...