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Aibretta looks at Dalinar, wistfully. "I'm glad I got to meet you, even if you're just passing through."
Madelon happily tells story after story of the things that Cedona did at the colony, and ends with, "She's smart. Real smart. Smart enough to know her mind. Now you've got a puppy dog crush, but you've got to respect what she wants. When you find her... She may need time to heal, or have no interest in hookin' up with a guy who rushes in to save her like a Star Knight. So... Go slow. Be honest about how you feel, but give her space and time to react, alright?" Then Madelon points a finger in Prosper's chest. "If she says 'no' that means 'no', and if I hear that you've harrassed her, I will personally fly out and whup your ass." Then he grins. "Or more likely, you'll whup mine, because you're young and spry and I'm middle-aged and decrepit. So don't put me in that kind of danger, alright?"
"Oh, praise Abadar that you found it!" Madelon opens it up and says, "So I filmed what Cedona told me about her explorations of The Royal Venture and think you all should see it, alright?"
He waits until you all settle, and puts up with Pip dropping on him and then falling asleep on his shoulder as he starts up the holographic projection.
★ --- ★ --- ★ --- ★
The camera focuses on Cedona, who looks more excited and happy than you've ever seen her. Life as a colonist had been good for her. She looks healthier, and just more at ease.
MADELON [off-screen]: "Okay, go!"
CEDONA [sticks out tongue, laughing]: "You sound just like a vid-director. Okay, so here's what I know about the ship. Madelon, this is a big find! I mean, huge."
MADELON [off-screen, joking]: "So you're sayin' we can't salvage her for parts?"
CEDONA: "You do that, and I will kill you. Pact World scientists need to see this. I'm pretty sure this ship crashed here before the gap and it's azlanti tech. Also, it's just simply beautiful."
Cedona pauses to show off some stills she took of the interior. There are gold-tipped sconces and decorative frills everywhere. It looks like a high-end luxury liner.
CEDONA: "Just look at this. Someone important owned this ship. It's a huge piece of history. Now, look at this engine room!"
Cedona pauses to show stills of a room that appears to be part jungle now. Most of the room is covered in moss and creeping vines. An area at the eastern end of the room contains two doors. The north door appears intact while the east door is askew in its frame. What was once a door to the south is now nothing but charred slag.
CEDONA: "That's where I found this."
Cedona holds up a cube approximately 3 feet on each side. It has several ports on one face, all of which are connected to the control harness via thick cables. It has no display panel or other obvious means of activating it, but it's covered in old runes and grey crystals.
CEDONA: "I think this is the key to ultra-fast travel that doesn't involve the drift, but I'm not sure. We've got to tell the Stewards about this, Madelon. This... this could be as big as drift engines."
★ --- ★ --- ★ --- ★
Then the hologram ends. "Anyway," Madelon continues, his antennae drooping. "This is what the Azlantis were looking for. I'll unlock the pad, and give it you. Maybe you'll find it useful where you're goin.'"
Madelon gives bear hugs to anyone who'll accept it, and heals everyone up. He gently transfers the squox kit back to Wint, and then says his goodbyes. "Good luck to you all. We can't thank you enough."
Minos ponders the images and will flip though them in more detail later. "That is old. And it seems like fortune has brought both us an the Azlanti here. So it is that Cube they have already taken with Cedona? If they have that why are still at the salvage site. Taking the colony seems to have been a matter of opportunity and procedure. But something is still at the site which we should secure from the Imperial Forces."
Minos makes some last checks and lays in the course to the landing sites for Wint to follow.
Wint listens to all the stuff about the Azlant ship without much interest. Old tech, new tech, is there really that much of a difference?
But he DOES care, deeply, about his friend Cedona. And about his new friends friends the miners.
"Ok, is everybody aboard who wants to be aboard? And everybody off who wants to be off? Have we made sure that no Squox are in the engines or in the guns?"
After waiting for confirmation of the above he launches the ship towards the mines
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Prosper returns the bear-hug gratefully and adds "Thanks for the help Madelon, and uh, for the advice last night." He lowers his voice and leans in to the older man with obvious juvenile awkwardness "Though I swear its not like what you said! It's not a crush and I'm just going to save her and then apologize. You won't have to come and beat me up, I promise."
He steps back and then nods eagerly along with Minos "From those pics on the datapad, it looks like it was a really impressive ship. With how full of themselves the azlanti guys are, I bet they're want to pick the whole thing up and bring it home just to be able to look at it. Maybe they haven't had a chance to yet." As he speaks he straps himself in to his seat in the Teapot.
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"I... I am glad to have met you too. Good night Aibretta."
"Maybe they still need something from the ship to learn how to use the cube. Let us make haste, perhaps we can stop them from gaining what they need."
Your journey to BTEP3 is uneventful, even though navigating over the ever-present fog provides challenges of its own. What you see of Nakondis, its verdant forests, the Blue Tin range, the swirling mists and crackling lighting storms off Lightning Lake, is all beautiful. Goraya points out landmarks along the way, and Wint executes a beautiful landing in the small clearing outside the mining camp, where rescue operations are underway. There are above ground tents and heavy digging equipment everywhere. As Goraya disembarks, two teenage lashunta girls run up to hug her, calling out in distress, “Aunt Goraya! Aunt Goraya! Dad’s trapped down there! He’s been down there for days!”
“I know. I came as soon as I could,” Goraya assures them. “Now why don’t you put me to work?”
A young human man of tien ancestry comes rushing up to you. “Oh you’re here! I’m Sam Chang, chief mining engineer.” He takes a deep breath and shakes your hands. “We’ve had a bunch of setbacks during this rescue dig. Multiple small cave-ins, tearing apart of our equipment by whatever’s down there. We had some communications to start, but that went away with the later cave-ins. We’re starting to think that’s whatever’s interfering with us could be intelligent. Do you think you can help us? We sure could use it!”
★ --- ★ --- ★ --- ★
Assess Stability & Safety of the Dig Site
Organize Medicine, Food and other Emergency Supplies
Try to Re-Establish Communications
Help Move Equipment and / or Clear Rubble
Activate mining carts, move rubble, find and make good places to tunnel.
Check for Signs of Whatever’s Making this Trouble
Keep Morale High
Travel In The Shafts to Help Repair Crews
Or... Other Options you can come up with!
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In an unusual display of assertiveness, Spec commandeers Chief Chang almost as soon as he stops talking.
"Hi Chief, glad to help. First things first, I think we need to know what we are dealing with here ... intelligent marauders are never good."
Spec starts walking towards a larger group of miners, obviously expecting Chief Chang to go with him, and begins ticking off items on his talons (switching over to flight pinions when he runs out) as he nearly assaults the poor man with a deluge of questions and near-demands.
"1) I need you to tell me what you know about these attacks ...
-----a) number
-----b) frequency
-----c) time of day
-----d) repetition
-----e) location...
----everything you can think of
2) Show me which of your people have been the closest thing to direct witnesses to the attacks
3) Where was the most recent attack? The first one?
4) Who touched or tampered with the site?"
Sam happily deluges you with data, sending you a detailed spreadsheet of all the information to your comm unit. After you sort through it, you realize that the cave ins have been irregular. "Anytime we get even close to getting this sorted, there's a cave-in," Sam says grimly.
You do get a list of all personnel associated with the site.
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Minos looks at the available plans and does what he kind does best. Find the Path. He walks out and surveys the equipment topside and the he heads in to the tunnels themselves and feels the dirt. He cross references reference the charts to determine dig sites.
While poking around Lord Dracos bounds around and moves a few curious rocks. The squox drops its treasure on Minos's feet. "Well...that is curious." He takes his notes and heads to Chang. "I think I see what may be part of the problem. There is defentenly some curious elements in the soil messing normal tunnels." Minos brings up a map with some new routes drawn in. "Dig here and here." Pointing to the new shafts. "I know it does not look like it, but they will get you there. And digging this shaft first will buy us more time."
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Upon seeing the apparently random pattern of cave in occurrences, the professor sets up a data query to scour his new mystical library chip for references to any sort of magical beastie that causes or is related to cave-ins.
With that running in the background, Spec wanders around attempting to interview the miners who might have seen or heard something in the vicinity of the incidents. He learns that miners are, in general, a rather unobservant bunch, as no-one seems to have seen anything (because of course being questioned by a strange little bird-man should always take priority over trying to actively dig one's friends out of a hole in the ground, right?) "Well, thanks anyway fellas!" Spec calls as he waves at their turned backs.
"Well, they say there's no school like old school" Spec mumbles to himself as he takes wing to overfly some of the areas of note looking for any sign of beasties in the area.
He swoops back into the staging area just as Minos finishes his mining advice immediately blurts out at top speed "Hey Chief, so there is definitely something moving around out there, but I can't for the life of me figure out what it is. It's really too bad that none of your miners saw anything, because having eyewitness accounts could really pull this information together, of course corroboration is always ....." Spec stops short a half-second and then apologizes "Oops, sorry about that.. ahem. Anyhow, I did notice that the incidents aren't quite as random as they seem, see if you look here, and you add in the time-sequence, and cross-reference the digging attempts with the relative disturbance of the.."
At that moment, the comm unit that He is trying to show Sam everything on chimes softly
"Oh yay, my search is done. Let's see here ... oh ... why hello beastie, what have we here?"
"I think that the first thing to do is to see if we can establish a link with the trapped miners. I'm pretty small and pretty agile. I think that I should see how close I can get. I'll take along a small amount of supplies with me. Some basics but, more importantly, some things to help keep up their morale. They need to KNOW that we're looking for them"
With that, Wint quickly looks through the available supplies here and on the ship and whips up some sugar laden treats. All dense, firm and flavourful. Banoffee Cheescake Chocolate brownie cake, Double chocolate cake, Rasberry mousse cake amongst others.
He can't help himself and makes large quantities of all of these, sufficient for both the trapped miners and the rescue workers. He couldn't do all of this, of course, without the help of this two new robotic friends.
And who can resist an opera singing chef? Even if the singing IS in Azlanti :-). Between him and Wint they make the preparation of the food an entertainment in itself.
"Everybody, you've all been doing a WONDERFUL job in helping your friends. You ALL deserve a bit of a break and lots and lots of treats. My two robot buddies and I have made up a few tidbits and we'd like your opinion of them."
(ignores any bonuses the helpers may give)
Wint then finds the smallest possible mining cart he can get, helps some of the better engineers to strip it down even further ] so it is just basically a one man sled
He then tries to fly it as close to the trapped miners as he can get, managing to get through much narrower passages than the others have managed.
At that point, he sets out on foot. He is agile and quite small. Although not an expert by any means, he also has at least the rudiments of engineering to help him avoid some of the worst spots.
A couple of times he notices, just in time, a potential cave in and manages to brace a small section or worm his way through.
A couple of other times he DOES trigger some rocks but they glance off of his armour.
Once there is an actual cave in but he manages to dodge the worst of it and quickly digs himself out.
But it is his ability to squeeze through things that serves him best. Several times he has to take off his backpack and pull it behind him
Ignoring any bonuses for being small
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Prosper initially looks overwhelmed at the sheer extent of work to be done, but as his allies split off to do what they do best, he gathers his own scattered thoughts and heads to first try buoy the spirits of the people working on the surface and in the upper layers.
He does this with an Astrazoan-only strategy that is equal parts bewildering and inspiring. He gathers the topside crew and gives them an impromptu pep talk, first turning into Madelon and then doing his best Madelon impression. "I'm sure many of you boys and girls have crushes trapped down there. And sure, they're countin' on you to get them out to safety. But don't you forget that they might need time to heal, and might have no interest in hookin' up with the guy or gal that comes rushin' in to save them like a Star Knight. So, take it slow." He pauses, mid pep talk, coming to the awful conclusion that maybe his pep talk is muddling the whole situation. "Er, I mean - What I'm tryin' a say -" He clears his throat in a very un-Madelon-like fashion "Take it slow enough to stay safe down there! We don't want any of ya gettin' caught in a cave in. And if we work together we can get through this!"
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Switching back to his normal appearance, Prosper aids the newly inspired miners, and Minos, in going down into the mine and helping to clear some of the cave-ins. While lacking engineering and structural knowledge, he keeps his eyes open for possible hazards.
And then pulls up his sleeves to aid in hauling rubble and squeezing through tight spots in search of survivors.
No matter how hard he works, the appearance of his body (though not his gear) is always spotless - subconsciously he keeps morphing to maintain his immaculate good looks. When one of his fellow helpers looks his way, he flips his hair out of his face and gives them a gleaming smile. "We can do this!"
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Once at the mine Dalinar becomes an absolute flurry of activity. He has once again taken the people in the mine's safety onto himself as a personal quest. He seems to plan on getting them out or working himself to death trying.
"Minos, what do you make of that?" Dalinar points out some of the supports the rescue crew has put up thinking they may have worked too quickly. He is off base however.
Next, Dalinar helps Wint dig through the Teapot, and the mess the squox have put it in, to find food. He seems to have much luck in finding stashes the squaox have set aside for themselves.
After that Dalinar heads over to the communications station to see if he can help in any way there. He mostly gets in the way until he realizes that he's better off leaving more qualified people to it.
Feeling useless after his attempts with technical work Dalinar decides to do some manual labor. He hasn't spent much time doing that sort of thing in his life but he certainly has the build for it. He spends hours moving rocks and pushing mine carts to where the actual miners tell him to.
Sweating like a winterborn ryphorian on the Burning Archipelago he takes a break. From manual labor anyway, he just can't sit around and do nothing. So he heads out to look for tracks and other signs of the creatures Sam mentioned. He noticed Spec looking into them and takes any findings to the Professor.
While doing all this Dalinar has something to say to every miner he passes. Whether it be a kind word to someone worried about the people stuck inside the ground or a stern talking to for folks he finds slacking off he misses no one. He even resorts to using his from time to time to let the people know that the Mysterious Seven are on the job and they do not slack off.
When Dalinar hears that Wint plans to head inside the hole he can't just let the skittermander run off alone. He helps Wint dig in a few places and holds up some rocks for him to slide past until the much smaller Wint goes somewhere Dalinar cannot.
After his first day of such action Dalinar is more worn down than after the Mysterious Seven took down nearly 30 trained soldiers. Everyday spent here he works long into the night until someone forces him to bed. Even then he tosses in his bunk thinking of all the things he could be doing. Should be doing.
When they arrive at the mining site Pon immediately and wordlessly begins looking for the communications equipment.
As soon as he finds it he begins fidgeting with it to enhance it's capabilities.
While the Chief is getting the equipment ready Minos looks around some more at the various cave in. He even uses some magic help understand
With his extra senses and odd collection of facts he sorts though his finds. After a some time he runs in to Spec seeming to do the same thing. "Professor! Look here! Are these...Droppings?"
If magical in nature, then +1 insight for identifying magical thing from Scholar.
Identifywill give a one time +10 for getting information[/i]
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Simple observations at the structures shows some clear flaws with the design of the layout. Through Rush and LINGSTON's combined capabilities, they work to reinforce the dig site.
LINGSTON's medical technical skills allow him to be of some effective use here, helping to prioritize medicine closer to expiration to be utilized first, and removing foods that would be considered a hazard for the immune system.
Try to Re-Establish Communications
Rush and LINGSTON work on this one also, rewiring many broken and old links and cables that would prevent any form of signal even happening. With tireless work, they manage to clear up a lot of the faulty connections.
Rush lifts, shoves, and hauls large chunks of rubble out of the way through sheer tenacity and strength.
Simple patrols with LINGSTON's scope eye will help with this. They move out and begin a steady search.
Rush does not bother with this, as he would rather lift and smash rubble, thus demonstrating his prowess!
Swimming through the rapids helps him feel alive, and doing so in the caverns will be just as thrilling to the Wrikreechee. Sure, water may be limited here, but crawling is a lot like swimming.
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Every time the professor wanders through the miners during his pursuit of the dread beastie, he makes it a point to stop and tell a blatantly ridiculous tall tale, like the story of the skittermander who accidentally tipped over Absalom station, or the one where the space goblin and his pet scavenger ooze "fixed" an Apostaean door... that the drow STILL can't get open
Spec also tries stopping by the medical pavilion on his way through, but shortly after arriving the staff thank him politely for pointing out the case of medicine under the table and escort him out before he can do too much damage.
He peers closely at what Minos points out"Why Minos, I think you're right! What in the world could these be from... potassium silicate and what?"
After struggling a bit to haul rocks with the more burly folks, Prosper slips away to join Spec and Minos in hunting whatever creature seems to be plaguing these parts. While they carry out more 'evidence-based' investigations, he follows in their footsteps, calling out "HELLOOO MONSTER!" and waiting to see if there's a reaction of any kind.
When he starts suddenly hearing an unusual noise in response, he grabs a hold of one of Spec's wings and leads him down a few of the tunnel. The excitement abates as he gets closer to the sound - it's no monster, just Dalinar using his .
He shouts back in response.
Minos hums to himself...
"Well I was born a thasteron miner's daughter
In a cabin, on a hill in Tasch outskirts
We were poor but we had love
That's the one thing that daddy made sure of
He shoveled thasteron to make a poor man's credit
Using a wide variety of talents, you all work to extract people in the mine. Pon does it single-mindedly, spending all his time trying to reestablish contact with miners using the communications array. Professor Spec first attempts to start up data analysis, pestering miners with questions and comments. Minos works first on finding the path, using all his skills to find safe places to dig. Wint, goes everywhere! He runs around with cakes made by his Azlanti chef robot and then helps in every location, whether he’s good at it or not! Prosper works at keeping the morale high, and shows everyone he’s willing to work whether he’s good at it or not. Dalinar and Lingston also put themselves to every job they can find. Rush’s natural talent for engineering shines through at just about every task he sets for himself, and Dalinar discovers that people take comfort from the voice -- even if Prosper teases him endlessly about it.
Then Spec looks into analysis of what sort of creature might be causing these cave-ins. He realizes that earth elementals or dust mantas could certainly do that, but they’re more prone to just attack directly. Another pattern that Spec notices is that the cave-ins have done very little damage to people -- there’s been a ton of minor injuries and collapsed equipment but no deaths. Minos assists in this analysis and finds broken bits of metallic chitinous shells -- from some very large beetle, perhaps? Then Goraya drags her nieces, Belli and Kyrian back to talk to both of you. “Both girls said they thought they saw some large insect just before our second cave-in.”
Kyrian, who’s looking nervous at being the center of attention, looks down and mutters, “It was my size, and I swear it was carrying a spear... but then I thought again that maybe I imagined it? Maybe it was shadows playing tricks on me?”
Studying the shell further, Minos realizes the metal chitin is its own innate armor, and remembers reading an article on a first contact with some creatures who lived beneath the surface of the planet Zafaiga. They were deep level miners, and very territorial and aggressive. But what were they called? It’s only a short while later that he shouts out to the startled miners near him, “Bolidas!” Could those territorial deep dwellers have a long-forgotten colony of their own, far beneath the surface?
At last, Pon and the communications group manage to get a tinny sort of communications going with the miners trapped below. The transmission is scratchy, but there’s a cheer as Toren’s voice comes up. “We’re still alive. But the water’s running out out and the last of the food went away a couple days ago...”
Enough of the way is clear now that a small group could get down to the bottom level of the mine to face whatever's down there. What is your game plan? Oh, who are we kidding? You head down to the mines like the heroes that you are. Sam’s crew of ill-armed miners is coming up directly behind you as backup and to provide technical expertise, but they're no match for you if it's going to turn into a fight.
Though he can see well in the dark, Minos will use token spell to illuminate a 30ft area of dim light near whom ever is in front.
You descend deep, to the bottommost section of the mine. The tunnels are so narrow that Rush and Dalinar get fairly far ahead of the light-bearing part of the party, when all of a sudden, beetle-looking creatures and few small rock creatures burrow out of the ground at the party!
Two of the beetle looking creatures wave their spears militantly at Rush and Dalinar. “Naga tag-Tag!”
Meanwhile, in another wide opening, the Red beetle person shouts, ‘Maxaad u baraneysaa? Miyaad dareemaysaa nacas?”
They advance upon you.
The Red Bolida, squinting against Minos's light, curls into a littile ball and rolls into Wint like a rolling ball!
He knocks Wint five feet back into Prosper, and then yells, "Tag-tag!!"
He unrolls and lands with his spear at Wint.
Meanwhile, Green and Blue each poke with a spear!
Were they even aiming at you?
★ --- ★ --- ★ --- ★
Round 1
Active conditions:
Bolida Blue
Bolida Green
Bolida Red
================================
Spec
Rush
Prosper
Wint
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Earth Elemental Yellow
Earth Elemental Pink
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Dalinar
Minos
"They don't seem to actually want to hurt us! At least, the one who hit me didn't! Does anybody know what they're saying? Can we try and talk to them? Lets NOT kill them!!!"
Wint drops a couple of his weapons, takes out one of the cakes that he has brought with him, and puts it down
"We don't want to hurt you. Can we just be friends? Here, have some cake"
He repeats that in Skittermander
On the off chance that the following is allowed
"Wow! I actually know what these guys are!" Prosper exclaims with surprise "Bolidas! I just uh, don't know much more than that..."
At Wint's suggestion of diplomacy, he adds "Anyone speak bolidan? Because it definitely wasn't taught in Skyfire training. Maybe Wint, try hugging one! It could be they like being hugged?"
Prosper also leans over and starts filling Wint in on bolida dietary habits - starting for what kind of cakes they might be interested in eating.
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"Guys, I think Wint might be on to something .. I'm not sure what these insect-y guys are, but those rock-fellows are earth elementals... If they really wanted to, they could've hidden in the rock and we'd have never known they were there until they struck."
Well, according to the treatises of ... subterranian .... dislike light...
Spec hold up his hands placatingly and, playing a hunch, stops imitating a lantern and extinguishes his feathers.
The Bolida looks with great surprise at the cake offering, anntennae quivering.
★ --- ★ --- ★ --- ★
Round 1
Active conditions:
Bolida Blue
Bolida Green
Bolida Red
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Spec
Rush
Prosper
Pon
Wint
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Earth Elemental Yellow
Earth Elemental Pink
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Dalinar
Minos
Minos first surveys the situation.
But has little to add. Seeing that others are taking a somewhat cautious approach, Minos reaches in to his bag and pulls out the spell gem of Tongues.
He activates the spell and touches Prosper. "That should help talking to them!
Wint makes an offering of a beautiful Banoffee cake. With his life science roll, Prosper remembers that just about every insectile race loves sugar, which is probably difficult to acquire in underground societies. Wint's gift would likely be more valuable than he foresaw. Rush thinks about thrusting his bone blade deep into a Bolida, but Lingston counsels caution. Professor Spec, watching the Bolida blink against the light, dims his glowing feathers.
"Qabo!" the red Bolida says to the little earth elementals, who retreat. Then he brings out a chunky comm unit, way too archaic to be anything used in the Pact Worlds, and speaks into it. "Waxaa laga yaabaa in kuwani ayan ahayn bilaa ah ka dib. Waxay keeneen hadiyad marti! Keega sonkorta!"
He lowers his spear, but does not drop it. "Maxaad ugu TIMEED mashaakiladeena?"
"Maybe these aren't stupid after all. They brought a guest gift! Sugar cake!"
"Why have you come to OUR caverns?"
Then Minos activates a spell gem of tongues!
"We didn't realize that these caverns belonged to you. It was a mistake on our part.
Thank you for not killing us for being stupid.
Right now, we just want to rescue the people who are trapped. If you let us, we'll get them out of there and back to the surface.
Then maybe we can talk about trade. We give you things (like cake), you give us the minerals that we want. Or let us dig them out? Would you be willing to talk about things like that?"
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At Minos' prompting, Prosper clears his throat and then vocalizes "Salaan, tani waa shaqeyneysaa?" And stands up straight in alarm as his mouth generates a torrent of weird noises. "Uah, taasi waa arrin walaac ah. Waxaan sameeyaa dhawaaqyo waran ah oo afkayga ka soo baxa. Xet Minos, waxaan u maleynayaa in qoraalkaagu shaqeeyay!" He grins at the bolida.
"Saaxiib iyo salaan saaxiibo! Adigu waad ka xanaaqeysaa, laakiin waxaan halkan u joognaa si aan u hubinno inay arimahoodu yihiin kuwo iska caadi ah! Mana aynaan ogeyn macallimiintaani adiga. Ma waxaad leedahay? Waxaan u maleynayaa inay dhici waayeen?"
As Wint begins adding his input, he does his best to keep up. "Sidaas awgeed, u mahad naqa inaanan nagu dhicin. Waxaan halkan u joognaa si aan u badbaadinno macdanaha dhulka hoostiisa ku yaal. Haddii aad noo ogolaato inaan tagno, waan ka soo bixi doonaa oo ka bixi doonaa godadkaas! Kadib markaa, sida Wint's hadalka, waxaan ka shaqeyn karnaa waxyaabo ganacsi. Waxaa laga yaabaa in laga ganacsado macaan macaan oo macaan leh oo macaan leh? Ma fiican tahay?"
"Oh wow, that's really weird. I'm making weird sounds out of my mouth. Hey Minos, I think your spell worked!"
"Hello and greetings friends! You look upset, but we're here to make sure things are alright between us! We didn't know these caverns are yours. Are they yours? I think they might not be?"
"So, uh, thanks for not killing us on sight. We're here to rescue the miners that have gotten trapped underground. If you let us go, we'll get them out and out of these caves! Then after that, as Wint's saying, we can work out some trade stuff. Maybe trading some delicious sugary cake for minerals? Sound good?"
At this point, Green and Blue return with Rush and Dalinar, poking spears in the general direction of the two who were scouting ahead. "Tag!" they say, herding you.
Red's antennae quiver again, but not in anticipation of cake. "Dadka xanniban? Ma waxaad u malaynaysaa maxaabiista? Waxay soo galeen meelihii aan deganaa ee aan qoday! Waxay iftiimiyeen! Waxayna qarxeen! Xumad waxay bilaabatay inay hoos u dhacdo qoyaankeena ukunta. Ma jiro ukun jabay, laakiin waxay u badan yihiin inay ku boodaan bolidas cabsan ...
"Waxaa lagu haynayaa ilaa inta ay barteen caadooyinka. Haddii kale, sidee baan u sii wadi karnaa ukumo ammaan ah?" He crosses his arms in front of him.
Green looks down at Wint's gift, and says hopefully in a smallish voice. "Laakiin ... Keega sonkorta."
"Trapped people? You mean our prisoners? They came into our caverns that we dug! No guest gifts! They brought light! They exploded things! Rubble started falling down on our egg caverns. No eggs broke, but maybe damage is to spirit rather than body...
"They're being kept sequestered until they learn manners. Otherwise, how can we keep eggs safe?"
"But.. Sugar cake."
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"Please tell them that we're very, very sorry. We didn't know that we were digging above their egg caverns. It was all a mistake
If they let them go we promise to not endanger their eggs ever again. We will listen to them and learn manners from them and will do things the way they want us to.
And please tell them that they are free to eat the cake. It is a guest gift. And I've got a little more"
With that, Wint slowly reaches into his backpack and puts down some more cakes. One for each Bolida and one for each elemental
"I'm sorry, but I don't know what their friends like to eat. Rock cake? If they tell me, I'll make sure to bring them some goodies next time too"
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Spec searches through his library chip, looking for information about Bolida cultural traditions, especially involving the guest gift, territorial disputes/resolutions, and young rearing practices.
There's got to be some way to get the people out of there while respecting their regional sovereignty
Reading through his library chip, Spec learns a number of key points about Bolidan culture.
Everyone wants to mine. Other jobs are much less exciting. Tunnel digging is a euphoric experience for them, and if they've managed to accept someone as a regular visitor, they can work out mining agreements where they help mine for others. Bolidans love rules and laws and are annoyed when those rules are broken. The Bolidan justice system is complicated. Those who break rules are not trustworthy. They must have others who are trustworthy vouch for them and promise to mentor before they are accepted back. And there always has to be compensation for wrongs.
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Wint provides the cake, which the Bolidans happily taste before the politely pass back pieces that they licked so that he can taste them too. They all bow as they do this. Then they offer the pre-licked pieces of cake to the rest of your group. "Dhadhan!"
Once proprieties have been honored, they devour the cake in earnest. Then Blue asks, "Sidee baad u baran kartaa anshaxyada uguna ilaalin lahayd ukumaheena? Uma muuqdaan kuwo la baro."
"How will you teach them manners and keep our eggs safe? They don't seem very teachable."
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Prosper shrugs at his pre-licked piece of cake, then mouths "Five second rule, eh?" to his allies before swallowing his chunk. He looks over at Dalinar and mouths "How can you be like that! They're so CUTE once you can understand them!"
He raises a hand to the bolidas and adds "Waa roodh fiican, sax ah? Xaqso?"
Prosper quotes from one of the shows he watched when he was little "Waan hubaa in aysan macnahoodu ahayn inaan wax xun sameeyo. Waxay yihiin kaliya adduunyada dusha sare ee aan garanayn wax ka wanaagsan." and then adds "Waxaa intaa dheer, habka ay u sahlanaato in lagu sharaxo asluubta markaad wadaagto luqad. Halkan, u ogolow qofkasta oo aad ku xannibtay, oo waxaan sharxi karaa waxa sharciyadu yihiin."
"I'm sure they didn't mean to do anything bad. They're just surface worlders that don't know any better."
"Plus, its way easier to explain manners when you share a language. Here, lets get everyone you trapped in there, and I can explain what your rules are."
Wint takes a small bite of the cake and hands it back. Insect spit is the least of his worries :-)
"The miners made a grave mistake. They made it through ignorance but the mistake was made. They owe you restitution for what they did. We acknowledge that.
You were the injured ones and it is up to you to tell us what they should pay as compensation for the crime they unknowingly committed. What fine would you accept to start to put this incident behind us?
As my friend here says, it is easier to teach manners when a language is shared. Let us go in there and start to educate them. That way, they will be able to apologize properly. They also need food and water which we have with us or they will die. You haven't tried to kill them yet so surely you agree that their crimes do not deserve death.
My friends and I will not let your eggs be endangered further. I'm sure that once the miners realize what they did, they will also agree. And I'm sure that we can come to trade agreements that we will BOTH benefit from. Trade agreements that will keep your people and eggs safe"
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The bolidans agree that this is a fine idea, and they agree to release the prisoners into your supervision. They create a tunnel where you can visit the prisoners who are still alive, though a couple have weakened enough that they have to half-carried out. Eventually, Sam Chang is brought into the negotiations, and he wrangles Goraya into starting to learn as much of the Bolidan language as she can -- especially if she's going to stay to help nurse her brother back to health.
"Abadar's teeth..." Sam mutters at this new development. "I can see how this will be useful, but a lot of my people are here because they enjoy mining. Good thing we all trained for multiple job classifications when we agreed to come here..." He sighs. "We're going to have to define territory very carefully, aren't we?" He cheers up a bit when he realizes that by the treaty the bolidans intend to offer guest-gifts in return when they come near the surface levels claimed by the miners.
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Minos quietly observes the interactions and take some mental notes of how they mine and dig and stores the information for future use. Lord Dracos tries to take some of the cake, but Minos is able to keep the squox from starting another inter species incident.
But seeing thing in hand he starts the pre-flight on the Teapot in and finds plots the landing near The Royal Venture
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Wint tries to learn recipes for foods that the Bolidan and Elementals particularly like so he can bring proper guest gifts next time
Edit: and, of course, organizes a "get to know" you party. Or tries to as the rest of the group doubtless drag him away before he has quite finished making enough goodies
Bidding adieu to the miners and hauling Wint away from party planning, you leave Goraya and Sam to deal with their first contact situation. It's time to take off towards the Royal Venture crash site. Sam tells you that the miners have a couple hovertrikes of their own at BTEP3, allowing you to take all three of the hovertrikes currently in The Teapot.
The singing chef has already prepped you a hearty brunch involving eggs, smoked meat and some spiced Azlanti flat bread that’s pretty good. Every once in a while you can hear terrified squox kits shrieking, “Reek-a-cheep!” as spatulas and ladles chase them out of the kitchen.
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It’s less than half an hour flight to the crash site. Scanning the terrain reveals that the only decent parking spot for The Teapot is about 20 minutes away from the site. But you could land, and then drive the hovertrikes in you wish!