Keskodai enters the room and gives a quick look around and taking a deep breath. <Oh, it's the kitchen!> He bustles up to Zavlig and excitedly telepaths <It's a pleasure to meet you Zavlig! Whatcha making for dinner? It wouldn't include honeyed grubs would it? Please tell me it you're making honeyed grubs!>
While in the area he takes a good look around curious as to what the marlomaw would be using to cook and if there are any clues to be found about a possible Weeping Knight-Zon-Kuthon connection.
"No, I'm sorry! It's mostly fish, and some shellfish and seaweed."
Keskodai looks a little crestfallen at the lack of honeyed grubs. <Awww, do you not get grubs here? Hmmm, mind if I take a look at whatcha got? I could possibly point out a few things that could stand in for grubs.>
Keskodai finds something a little odd in one of the cabinets, amidst many old, rotting, and long-expired ingredients. There are several empty bottles of an ingredient popular among lashunta, but poisonous to aquatic creatures.
Zavlig shrugs. "Most of the stuff down there made us sick, so we don't try any of it anymore. We should probably just throw it all out, but you never know when something might come in handy!"
Iseph enters the kitchen after most of the rest of the party. They take a glance around the place, but food interests them little. He saunters over to Zavlig's cooking and studies what he is doing. "Food is for sustenance.
Once he is convinced there is nothing else of note here, he paces across the hall to the opposite room.
By the smell, definitely not!
Keskodai catches a whiff of what the woman is cooking and clamps his mandibles shut, not sure how to handle the smell politely. <It looks good. But I would be more than happy to try sampling the foods that you make yourselves. We can get these foods at home, but what you eat regularly would be something we could only get here!>
For better or for worse, Keskodai doesn't see much else to be found in the kitchen and bids Zavlig farewell. <Good luck with the cooking! I hoep it turns out well!>
He then Heads over to the last door in the place and heads down.
Realising that the room he is heading to is where Oshessa, he turns to head downstairs instead.
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.
Lapis, Xyklik, and Iseph spot something shiny stuck to the bottom of one of the curtains.
Iseph nods in acknowledgement and moves up behind Lapis for support. He keeps his eyes not on the object they have discovered but rather on the reactions of the lounging morlamaws.
Lapis finds a Starfinder insignia.
Following everyone around the living quarters, Keskodai gets lost in thoughts of what in Pharasma's name they were going to do if it turned out that this place really was a cult of Zon-Kuthon. He catches sight of the two androids though and a glimpse of what they have in their hands. Wait, is that a Starfinder Insignia?
He approaches closer and trying to get a better look. <Is that an insignia? Lapis, you know anything more about it?>
He gives it a good look, curious as to why the thing is here, and not with everything else the Starfinders left.
Lapis is positive that this is a current insignia, not one left over from the abandoned Lodge. The design is too modern.
Iseph frowns deeply, his paranoia growing stronger. He walks carefully and deliberately around the room to see if you spot any other clues of where the insignia might have come from.
Lapis and Iseph find only beds and chests, personal effects of the morlamaws.
The morlamaws excitedly talk to you about the kalos, often speaking over each other. There's nothing new from what you've already heard.
Keskodai listens to the conversations intently, trying to ensure that the morlamaws really don't know anything about what might have happened or the potential connections to one of the dark gods.
A worried look on his face over the kalos, he gives everyone a shrug. <There's probably not much we can pump from them for right now. Maybe we can get soem answers from Oshessa after her sermon, assuming she doesn't try killing us!>
Keskodai doesn't pick up on anything unusual from any of the morlamaws.
One of them suddenly states, "Oh! It's almost time for the sermon! I hope you'll join us!"
"Yes, this is all suspicious. We need to be on the lookout." Choppy's pun goes over Iseph's head completely.
Going to the hall, Iseph is perturbed that there is nowhere he can sit with his back to the wall. The best he can do is to place himself right at the back where he can observe everything, or so he hopes.
Keskodai shuffles into the front row, excited for the possibility of theological discussion even with the potential threat of this being a cult of the Lord of Darkness. <I wonder what this sermon's going to be about? Can we ask questions?>
You all take your seats, and the morlamaws file in to the other benches, whsipering excitedly to each other. Just about then, Oshessa emerges and takes the stage. While her demeanor was somewhat brusque when she greeted you earlier, her persona in front of the crowd is magnetic. Every morlamaw is rapt at her every word.
She speaks— in Common, for the benefit of the sect’s new guests—on the importance of loss to have meaning in one’s life, and “how, without pain, we would never appreciate the joyous things in life.” She tells the story of their journey to this place, after being cast out of their city. They faced dangerous animals and violent currents, but eventually made it here, to their new home. Oshessa makes large, expressive gestures with her flippers, to drive every point home.
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Lapis listens to the Sermon, though like most religion, much of goes over his head and he fails to appreciate anything beyond the words themselves. he does notice something however, and leans close to Keskodai and wispers,"Did you hear that tone on 'Joyous things'? what doe think she means by that?" he asks.
Seated right at the back, Iseph sees some commotion among the rest of the team up in front, and he starts getting restless, wondering what is happening up there.
Keskodai recalls that “Joyful Things” are the name of certain particularly devoted servants of Zon-Kuthon, and this could easily be a slight variation.
Choppy does not see scars on anybody else.