Neither Raia nor Vixi can read the writing. Raia casts comprehend languages, and the strange writing coalesces into meaning in front of her eyes: "Muncher."
"It says Muncher. Muncher? Anyone recognize or know the meaning?"
"No, but if that means it tears things apart, then I think I love it even more now," Obo says as she reaches out to stroke it with one long claw.
"Do you need a moment or two, Obo? These sorts of relationships often need time and space to work out properly, right?" Navasi offers with a bit of a playful smirk, then glances to the rest of the team to start looking towards one of the other rooms that the team has not explored yet to allow the Vesk a 'personal moment' if desired.
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Id's antennae perk up at hearing the inscription on the gun. I do! It's from the Manta Corps! My ship passed them on a previous mission and we talked about sparring someday. That gun was their soldier's pride and joy, it wouldn't have been left in some closet. Something's not right here.
"Huh. Well, let's keep cataloging, then, right? Maybe we'll get some better insight into what's going on... and hopefully we don't run into something horrible like an assembly ooze spitting out bioware or something like that. I've heard that's a thing during spacer-talk at bars." Navasi offers hopefully.
Raia hands the machine gun back to Id. "This is troubling. Maybe these morlamaws know a bit more than they are letting on about." Raid heads to the northern door and opens it.
Obo looks at Navasi with a blank look following her comment about "relationships." It's not clear if she just doesn't understand the innuendo, or if she's simply trying to ignore it.
After Id reveals the importance of the weapon to the Manta Corps soldier, she stows her own auto-rifle and takes "Muncher" from him. She gives it a thorough check and chambers a round.
"I know what that's like. I'll treat it right until we sort this out."
Hefting "Muncher" into a combat-ready hold she follows Raia to the door, ready for whatever may happen....
The door opens easily to the next room. Racks of weapons line the walls of this area, though many show signs of damage from spending decades underwater. Several suits of armor hang from the southern wall, while various boxes of tools rest on the ground. There is a single exit door on the western wall. Most of the original Starfinder equipment is damaged, but there are several items still in usable condition, including two tactical pikes, two tactical spears, and an efficient bandolier. The room also contains an advanced doshko, two sets of d-suit I armor, a set of officer ceremonial plate armor, and four underwater tactical starknives.
Raia digs through all of the equipment. "Some of this si still in decent shape." She begins to make a pile and see what she can do to shape the armor to her companions stature.
Raia hands one of the adjusted D-Suits to Vixi. "This one should work for you now."
Obo watches Raia expertly resize the armor, impressed by her skills.
"Vixi, I think that bright, fancy officer armor's just your style. Looks a little too heavy for ya though."
She then sets aside the new, unused doshko that she bought back on Absalom Station in favor of the sleeker advanced model.
"Doesn't make sense to lug two of these around."
Always wanted one of these. Never could afford it though. Gonna be bummed if I can't keep it.
She then helps Navasi complete her inventory adding in tidbits about the various weapons and armor.
Gathering up the equipment Raia puts the new set of armor on, leaving her lashunta tempweave on the rack. "Let's see what's in the other rooms."
This small rectangular room measures about thirty feet across. It has a single entrance to the north. Cabinets and small counters line most of the walls here, with a cooking table and stove combination resting against the southern wall. A pike lies along one long counter with several fish speared on it. An indigo morlamaw moves around quickly, chopping ingredients and adding things to several pots.
"Oh, hello! I'm Zavlig. I do hope you'll join us for this evening's meal; I'm trying to make it extra tasty for you!"
"Whatcha cooking? Did the other recent guests join you for a meal, too? Please do not be offended, some of us cannot handle new cuisine very well and you would probably feel horrible if someone got sick."
Navasi offers that politely as she tries to figure out what if anything is in herre, and trying to NOT think of what a walrus-person might consider 'extra tasty'.
"It's, uh, well, fish. And some shellfish. And some seaweed. But I'm trying to make it extra tasty!"
"Can't wait to taste it." Raia smiles. "Though we are going to finish looking around first." She glances around the room before heading to the room furthest south.
"We do catch fish with spears! Sometimes, people do it the old-fashioned way, with their tusks, but that seems like too much bother to me."
Raia finds something a little odd. There are several empty bottles of an ingredient popular among lashunta, but poisonous to aquatic creatures.
Raia's antennae give off a small glow as she sends a telepathic message to each of her companions. {"Something is even stranger. Those empty bottles are popular on Castrovel among my kind, but they are poisonous to these aquatic creatures."}
Raia grabs one of the bottles. "Excuse me Zavlig. But you do know that this is extremely poisonous to your kind right?"
"Oh, we don't use any of the ingredients down there. We tried once and got sick. Most of it is very old. Perhaps we should throw everything out, but you never know when something might come in handy!"
After Zavlig reassures Raia that they don't purposefully ingest the toxins, Obo asks if she can carry a small bottle of it. Just in case.
"A tool is a weapon by any other name," she says in a tone and cadence as if reciting a mantra.
"What did you do when you got sick? Was there an antidote, or something?"
Id doesn't notice any other suspicious items, though there are certainly a lot of long-expired bottles and cans in the cupboard. Zavlig himself seems very honest and genuine, if maybe a little nervous to be talking directly to you.
"Well, I didn't really talk to them much, but they sure seemed nice! They were talking a lot about clafouti? No, clophirium! Maybe they went to look for that?"
Raia's face scrunches up. "What are those?" She asks about the clafouti and clophirium.
"Did you make the same sort of special meal for the other guests that were here before us?" Navasi inquires gently.
I've seen some crazy things in Space, but that would really be a topper... accidentally poisoning the guests with a meal made in their honor...
Zavlig shrugs in answer to Raia's question.
"We actually rotate meal preparation, so I wasn't the one who cooked that day. It would have been..yes, it was Oshessa that day! Isn't she amazing? Taking her turn in the kitchen like anybody else?"
"So you do this co-op style, everyone takes their turn at every position so everyone gets a chance to try something new every day? That's kind of neat! Is that part of your religion or is it just a thing you do as a people?"
Navasi is intrigued, but also a bit worried because the more people that cook, the more of a chance that someone DID accidentally poison guests!
"Chlophirium is the element that we were asked to inquire about here, Raia. Remember, that old fuel that no one uses anymore?"
Raia smacks her head. "That's right. Sorry, so much going on here that I forgot all about coming for the Chlophirium. Do you know where they might have gone to look Zavlig?"
Zavlig shrugs in response to Raia again. "I'm not really sure. They left sometime that night. Oh dear! I hope they didn't get sick."
"I am sure that they are fine." Raia waves her hand trying to reassure the morlamaw. [b]"Though we should get back to looking around.
An airlock at the top of the staircase separates the flooded lower floor of the building from the upper floor. Beyond the airlock is a large facility lined with beds and chests. This space provides living space for potentially several dozen creatures. Several morlamaws lounge in their beds, while curtains separate off several corners.
Id, Vixi, and Iseph notice something small and shiny stuck to one of the curtains.
"Maybe we should wait until we're done with the inventory, then we'd have a really GOOD reason to talk to her?" Navasi offers with a smile. "It'd also help us figure out what happened here, wouldn't it?"
Id gets closer to the object. It looks like a Starfinder insignia.
Iseph goes to investigate said something small and shiny.
Iseph also sees the Starfinder insignia!
Iseph and Id can make Engineering or Culture checks to know more.
Starfinder Insignia.
ISEPH deadpans.
Probably Important.
Navasi keeps a sharp and respectful eye out, so as not to wake the slumbering sentient spacelrus.
Noticing that everyone else is focused on some ... thing that Obo failed to notice, she joins them, but knows nuthin' about nuthin'. She leans over and whispers to her little friend.
"Vixi, what am I lookin' at? And what more is there to it?"