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"A vesk? So you say you are no longer at war." She reaches for one of Mikkazuki's hands to examine the claws. "Yet you are always armed, are you not?"
Mikkazuki allows her to examine her claws. "We are no longer at war with the Pact Worlds. There are still enemies such as the swarm out there. When called upon I will do my part to battle them."
"Yes, our claws are capable of cutting through most armor."
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Charli smiles at the dark blue morlamaw. “Greetings, Oshessa!”
“Yes, I’m a gnome! I’m very well proportioned for a gnome, but having a smaller frame, yes my head is a little larger than an adult human’s would be. Though part of it might be because my hair is so big. My parent’s always told me that it went everywhere. Interestingly, it’s not larger proportionally than a human child.” Then she confides, “I don’t know why you never expected to meet a gnome. There’s not a lot of us, but we travel everywhere!”
She looks shyly at morlamaw. “Are you a scholar of the life sciences? How fascinating! Can you tell me about your own anatomy?” Charli asks. “Those large articulated hands are very interesting. They’re so wide, I bet you guys are awesome when you play music. You can span a whole octave for keyboards! Your claws and tusks look fierce, too. Were your people once warriors?”
“Oh! I almost forgot” Charli looks at them. “Do your people drink tea? It’s a cultural tradition shared by many cultures, and is often used as a ritual greeting and friendship ceremony!”
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Don't even think it? Sophia warns her creator.
"What?" Hawthorne questions in true innocence.
Return his attention to the morlamaw--though the exchanges between the mechanic and his artificial intelligence happen faster than thought--and answers, "I am from Akiton. My homeworld is still quite present."
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Keskodai racks his brain to see if the 'Weeping Knight' may possibly match up with any known Pact Worlds deities.
Keskodai telepathically says to Oshessa, but broadcasts it so that everyone can hear, "This is how the telepathy works. I'm guessing you've never experienced this before? Don't worry though, it works only as a means of communication. It doesn't allow me to read your mind or anything fantastical like that.
"As for my antennae, they're used to detect vibrations, not telepathy. In fact, if you'd like a demonstration, I can turn my back so I don't see you. Then if you walk around, I can tell you which way you've walked, even if you move as silent as a... as a ysoki!
"Oh and by the way, I'd like to introduce you to my son Chk Chk." Keskodai holds up the larval jar and a *tap* *tap* emanates from it.
"He's very excited to make your acquaintance!"
"I do my best to learn, though of course, my most important job is to receive the visions of the Weeping Knight. Our tusks are for hunting: spearing fish. They can also help us move through difficult ice."
"We do not drink tea, but perhaps you could serve it to us tonight with dinner after evening services. Zavlig is in the kitchen preparing tonight's meal." She gestures to Area A4.
Oshessa joins in the experiment with Keskodai, then examines Chk Chk. "How fascinating. Well, I would love to learn more about you all later, but I'm afraid I have to prepare for this evening's sermon. Please look around; feel free to take back all of the Starfinder-marked equipment. I do hope that you'll join us for services in a few hours; perhaps you too will find meaning in the Weeping Knight."
She bows her head to you and returns to the airlock to A8.
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Rahm, having missed his chance to talk about his experience as an android, seems largely nonplussed. After all, all he has ever been is what he is, how do you describe that to someone? Just as well really.
After she leaves he says to the others "Anyone ever hear of anything like this Weeping Knight?"
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"No, it does not appear in any of our files," Hawthorne answers Rahm-9.
The mechanic smiles and bows to Hinevera and Teltham before he heads to the other side of the great room and tries to access the door with the 'CAUTION' tape . The priest smiles kindly to the other morlamaw as he passes them. At the door, he activates his subdermal implant before pressing his hand to the door's activation mechanism.
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Mikkazuki sends a text message through the comm unit to the others in her group.
"As I understand salvage laws, the Starfinder Society abandoned this place so the morlamaw would own it by right of salvage. Please keep that in mind."
She then goes over to Hinevera and asks "Could you please direct me to where the Starfinder supplies to be inventoried are?"
She will then go there and start the inventory.
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“You’re right! I should serve the tea with dinner!” Charli brightens. Pulling out her professional outfit, she puts on a black apron with a small tasteful pink holographic logo for ‘The Posh Kettle.’ “I’m going to see if Zavlig needs any help, and if I can get some inspiration for what to brew with dinner!”
Charli smiles and waves at all the morlamaws at the tables, chatting with everyone she walks by, just like she would at the folding tables outside her tea stall.
“Hello, I’m Charli! Why yes, I’m a gnome! Pleased to meet you!”
Charli glances at the tables as she goes by...
...and sees nothing but psychedelic walruses, hanging out! Eventually she makes it to the kitchen and opens the door!
“Hello, you must be Zavlig! I know you must be busy getting dinner ready... May I help?”
"Yummmm, let's see what's coming up for dinner, Chk Chk! One can always learn a lot about a people and their culture through their food!"
Keskodai follows Charli, eagerly smelling the air, hoping to catch a scent of what's cooking.
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Realizing where Hawthorne is headed and not wanting to shout across the room, Mikkazuki calls over the comm “Hawthorne, you might want to ask why the caution tape is there before opening that door. I would hate for the area to be flooded with radiation or something.”
Having said that, she then turns to the nearest morlamaw and asks “Why is there caution tape over that door?” while pointing towards the door.
Hinevera answers Mikkazuki. "Well, there's certainly Starfinder equipment back there, but be careful! Some things shorted out when the building was flooded, and there are robots who shoot anyone who goes in! There also some books and things in the library." She gestures to A6.
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, of course! I hope that you will all enjoy the meal! I don't know if I'm the best cook, really; we all take turns preparing food."
There is fish and some shellfish, and he doesn't seem to use a lot of seasoning.
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Keskodai moves in and says to Zavlig, "Smells absolutely terrific! I see seafood is the primary ingredient on the menu. Which makes sense actually, considering we're underwater!" Keskodai guffaws a bit at his own joke. Chk Chk twists around a little in his jar, which you can only assume is a larval equivalent to a facepalm at Keskodai's 'dad humor.'
Keskodai continues speaking but this statement is directed more towards Chk Chk and other close by party members who are also looking into the kitchen, "But more seriously, we see that the food being prepared are primarily proteins with no vegetables or starches. This tells us that the morlamaw rely on hunting rather than gathering or farming for their primary food source." Keskodai looks up to Zavlig "That is, unless these fish and shellfish are farmed?"
Before waiting for an answer from Zavlig, Keskodai continues, "And the lack of seasoning in the food tells us that either seasoning is in short supply or that these proteins sufficiently meet the average morlamaw's nutritional requirements with no additional seasoning required." Keskodai adds in a lower, hushed town so that only Chk Chk and other party members can hear, "Or perhaps Zavlig just isn't really that good of a cook...ke ke ke!!" Keskodai chuckles again and Chk Chk larval facepalms again in response.
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Library?
"Robots?" Hawthorne replies over the comms. He looks visibly torn between the two rooms.
They're just robots. Think of what might be in their data collections.
"I know, but remember what a fabulous puzzle that droid core off of the drift rock was?"
That was an extradimensional droid. These are boring old Starfinder robots.
He nods as the two intelligences come to a consensus and starts heading back to Mikkazuki. "On my way."
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Charli rummages around in the cabinets, looking for anything that isn't long-since expired. It's difficult: not even most shelf-stable ingredients fare well against a century and a flood. But she finds something a little odd. There are several empty bottles of an ingredient popular among lashunta, but poisonous to aquatic creatures.
“Of course. The whole structure was flooded when we found it. The computers and other equipment in here don’t function underwater, so we managed to restore breathable air to a lot of the rooms. There are airlocks, like the one you just came in from, between some rooms. Still, we try to keep some areas filled with water—it’s just more comfortable for us.”
"Morlamaws live in trench cities all over this planet. We were cast out because of our faith."
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Charli rummages around in the cabinets, looking for anything that isn't long-since expired. It's difficult: not even most shelf-stable ingredients fare well against a century and a flood. But she finds something a little odd. There are several empty bottles of an ingredient popular among lashunta, but poisonous to aquatic creatures.
Charli notices the empty bottles of Ertis Oil, at first flashing to fond memories of Ertis Cakes she'd once enjoyed in Laubu Mesa... Then she pales remembering the special disposal rules Ertis Oil had, and how careful Lashunta were about using it anywhere near lakes and rivers. Oh no. Oh no no no... Grabbing the bottles, she runs to Zalvig. "These bottles of Ertis Oil are empty. Please tell me that none of you have used it in the food?"
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Rahm prepares for whatever malfunctioning mechanical menace that lies in wait, but mostly just consists of making sure he has weapons at hand. Hopefully they can simply subdue whatever is here and preserve what data they have.
He can't help but think there is more to this issue of the Weeping Knight. He knows little about religion, but there must be some reason the beings here were exiled for their faith.
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Hawthorne returns to Mikkazuki's side. "Shall we begin to browse this library you mentioned? We can override the robots when Charli is done in the kitchen, although I'm sure you and I could get a couple rusty Starfinder droids under control in short order."
The last droid you fought was much older and probably more broken than these will likely be.
"I have faith in your hacking skills, Sophia."
Well... as well you should, but... still. I'm fond of you and don't want you losing an arm or something.
"We can afford a replacement."
Keskodai's relaxed, meandering enjoyment of the sights, sounds and smells of the kitchen is interrupted when he notices Charli's sudden change in demeanor as she urgently rushes over to Zalvig.
Keskodai walks over to see what's got Charli upset and seeing the Ertis Oil bottles...
...Keskodai doesn't quite understand what the issue is. "What's the problem, Charli? Ertis oil? That's pretty tasty stuff when used in the right amounts!!"
...or via magic.
Zavlig responds, "Oh no, I don't think so. Most of those foods have gone bad or make us sick, so we just eat what we hunt or what we collect."
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“Oh thank goodness,” Charli says, sagging with relief. She turns to Antoine and Keskodai. “Ertis Oil is a delicious ingredient, but while harmless to us it can be really dangerous to aquatic creatures. It can impair the gills, and cause problems elsewhere. It’s so dangerous that there are special disposal rules for it around waterways.”
She opens up the bottle, peering inside and then sniffing to sense whether it was emptied recently.
That sounds like a relevant Profession check!
Seeing that the crisis has been averted, Keskodai goes back to sauntering around the kitchen, enjoying the smells and thinking about which dish he will sample first come mealtime.
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Ertis Oil? Isn’t that a Lashunta seasoning?
Over the comm, Mikkazuki responds “Be right there.”
She signals Rahm to follow as she heads towards the kitchen.
Once in the kitchen, she looks around and then sets up her medkit on the counter. Turning to Zavlig, she asks “May I take a spoonful of the stew?” pointing towards one of the pots. She also looks over the area for any potential contamination sights.
Looking to Charlie, she adds “Do you have some of the substance so I can verify my tests will catch it? I’ve heard of it, the instructors who taught me that language talked a few times about some of their recipes,”
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Hawthorne raises an eyebrow slightly as the Vesk leaves without comment as soon as he arrives after being called over.
Maybe he took offense at the implication that he might need our assistance in overriding the robots.
"I don't know. Vesk are hard to read."
The priest of Triune turns his attention to Hinevera and begins to discuss theology.
"Oh but of course!"
Keskodai joins the group and assists where he can.
Charli examines the bottle closely There's no dust on it, and she's able to swap a little oily residue from the inside. It was probably used sometime in the last few months.
An extremely thorough search of the food finds no trace of the oil. However, it does not seem that the fish is being heated to regulation food safety temperature.
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"Have your people heard of Triune?" Hawthorne asks the morlamaw. "Or perhaps the Precursor, Brigh? You are clearly curious and clever to have purged this base and repurposed the technology here for your purposes. The Precursor would be quite impressed with yor innovation."
Later, he asks, "Do your people have starships? Drift travel? If not, how would your people feel about traveling the stars and meeting new people like us?"
"We don't know a lot about your gods, but there may be something about Triune in the books. I don't think any morlamaws have ever left the planet; we definitely don't have starships!"
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Sigh. it seem i Will need again to fake Eating an alien food. I Will post the recipe and ask a chef to create a more digestible one...
Antoine continues to take photo of the Morlamaw's recipe and ask for the permission to publish it.
He whispers to Charli "I think we have pass enough time here. They don't seem to be in immediate danger.
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Looking to Zavlig, Mikkazuki mentions "You might want to cook the fish a little more for us. We aren't native, so it is important that it is cooked all the way through."
Looking to Charli, she adds "Perhaps you can demonstrate?"
With that, she starts packing up her medkit. I hope Hawthorne isn't too annoyed, my getting called off like that.
She then rejoined Hawthorne. "Ready to check out the library? Sorry for the delay, Charli was worried about food safety."
A large portrait in the northeast corner displays an intense-looking ysoki in an official uniform, while a painting on the wall nearby depicts the image of a broken chain. A bookshelf on the eastern wall contains several antique books, while a second shelf displays various pieces of broken chain. A stack of boxes has been tucked into the corner between the door to the south and the airlock to the west. A light green morlamaw stands next to the airlock, apparently on guard.
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Puzzled by the broken chain, Mikkazuki looks at it briefly. Why would they keep broken chains hanging around?
With a shrug, she directs BOB to take an image of the room. She checks that the image is clear enough to read the spines of the books and has it do a closeup of the portrait.
She then starts sorting through the books, categorizing them.