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Not seeing the children immediately upon entering the room, Morvruul whispers with caution, "See, only shape-changers could disappear so quickly. They likely are still in here, but they could be appearing as anything."
The witchwyard Starfinder activates the light from his newly-installed implant and draws his pistol.
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"From the video, it looks like they're behind those buckets." Jelly whispers, gesturing to the corner of the room.
"Then, they should prepare to have their buckets 'kicked'." Morvruul responds, hoping that the dwarf is as well-versed in human metaphors as he believes himself to be.
bellows the kish.
The witchwyrd nods approvingly as the kish issues threats. This one would make a fine henchman. He notices quietly.
Children you have nothing to fear we are here to make repairs. Are you hungry? We can get you some food.
Is the elven Technomancer planning poison? A genius! Morvruul notes. These Starfinders are far more devious than I thought. They may warrant more caution and vigilance, than initially believed.
After Gardam bellows his threat you hear a high pitched bawling begin from behind one of the buckets. From behind another bucket one of the kids pops their head up. "Please don't hurt us, we're just kids!" The crying from behind the other bucket continues.
The crying stops and a second kid pops up, "Well, we were hiding because you're yelling at us."
The kids do come out and look at the token spell quality kitten in mild wonder.
[b]"Well, we got stuck in here when the power went out..."[b] one of the kids offers.
"Our dad is Kieu Kein. He's an engineer on this ship." one of the kids offers.
Jelly can you identify and fix the problems?
No obvious signs of the electrical problem are in this room. You do notice that in the next room, it looks like there's a thin layer of frost coating the floor though.
"We've never been to that room and we don't know anything about our pet." the smaller kid offers.
The bigger kid looks wide eyed. "We don't even have a pet!"
"Yeah, and we definitely didn't set up a boobytrap in the doorway."
The bigger kid eyes go wide again before she blurts out, "Yeah, it was trapped before we got here!"
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"You are shape-shifters, all right." Morvruul announces. "It is obvious that you are lying!"
The Starfinder glares at the children while the other agents attend to the door.
"But, I am calling your bluff!" the witchwyrd declares, reaching for the comm link on his armor. Dialing Fitch, he informs the ysoki, "We have found the source of the problem. Put me in touch with Kieu Kein. That is, if he is indeed aboard this ship!"
A moment passes before you receive a call, Morvruul. "Hello, this is Kieu Kein, I heard you wanted to reach me. How can I help you?"
Meanwhile, the larger kid replies to Nikon "There's no pet. I don't know what you're talking about." as she glances nervously through the open doorway.
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"This is agent Morvruul of the Starfinder Society. You can help me by telling me if you have any children. And, if so, what their names are. And whether they have any pets." Morvruul speaks into the comm gleefully.
Turning towards the children, he whispers loudly, "I have Kieu Kein on the comm link at this very moment. He will reveal your charade any minute now, you little shape-shifters!"
Then, turning his attention back towards the comm, he adds, "Oh, yes. And one more thing: Tell me a fact that only each of your children would know."
"Oh, you've found my children? Kieu Lan is my daughter and Kieu Si is my son. Are they okay? ... And no, no pets... They'd know the ingredients of Daddy's Pasta. It's noodles, hamburger, and Castrovelian Bok Choy." Kieu Kein pauses a moment, "Hold on, I'm on my way to E-deck."
Kieu Si looks at Morvruul with mild confusion, "Shapeshifters?"
Kieu Lan replies quickly to Morvruul "Easy! Spaghetti, beef and choy choy."
When Nikon suggests shooting Kieu Si shouts "No, don't shoot chompers!"
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"Aha!" Morvruul cries, "I knew it. Among the true constituents of 'Daddys' Pasta' are noodles, not..."
The witchwyrd stops for a moment, pondering his words.
Wait a minute. What the humans call, "spaghetti" actually just IS thin noodles, isn't it? The Starfinder collects himself and slips his pistol back within its holster. "Very well, it would appear that you are, indeed, the Kieu children--or one of you, at least." he concedes.
"Tell us, then, who is this 'chompers', that you don't want my companion to shoot?" Morvruul asks, as he heads over towards the doorway to the room with the frosted floor. "Could he, perchance, be in here?" The Starfinder scans the doorway where Nikon stands with pistol ready and then prepares to enter.
Morvruul, as you look at the doorway you notice that there's a thermal sensor in the door that's blinking rapidly.
"Uh, Chompers is our pet. But we weren't sure dad would let us keep it." Kieu Lan offers.
"We found it. And it likes to eat things. Chompers is so funny!" Kieu Si adds.
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"Oh, dear. It would seem someone, perhaps this Mr. Chompers, has been tinkering with the thermal sensors. Clearly, such manipulation would be beyond the abilities of these mere children. Sabotage would indeed seem to be afoot." notes Morvruul upon spying the blinking indicator in the doorway. Turning to the dwarf, he stays somewhat dismissively, "Take care of that to thermal sensors, won't you?"
Turning to the elf, the witchwyrd replies, "I am a merchant, not a child escort service. I will text Mr. Kieu and ask that he come retrieve his progeny.". He begins tapping away on his comm link.
Then, addressing the children, he says, "Your father is no doubt on his way. I suggest you cooperate with us and quickly. What sort of 'pet' is Mr. Chompers? Has it been engaging in any potential acts of sabotage? Where is it now? And, most importantly, what type of forbidden technology did you encounter during your unauthorized run of the ship?"
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Kieu Si points into the room beyond. "Mr. Chompers is in there."
Morvruul's question about forbidden technology seems to be ignored entirely by the children. Kieu Lan offers "Mr. Chompers isn't a bad guy, it just eats funny things. I fed it my homework!"
Kieu Si adds "Forbidden technology is watching TV after bedtime! Dad always says "No, it is forbidden!""
Those of you looking into the room beyond realize that various holes have been chewed through the walls in this area. The holes vaguely resemble the burrows of a rodent.
When Jelly looks into the holes she doesn't see any sign of the creature. She does get the sense that someone could try climbing into the holes, being careful to avoid the sharp edges , or that one could use their knowledge of ship design to figure out likely locations for the creature .
Gardam crawls into one of the holes, only to get his armor snagged on the rough edges.
Nikon on Morvruul examine the power lines to realize the damaged junction box is likely in the aft wall. Quickly taking the wall apart, you find the nest of a small creature, currently occupied by the a pinkish creature that's mostly mouth and teeth with stubby arms and legs. It looks as you as you open up the wall and let's out a confused sound. "Bwarg?"
It immediately bolts out of the wall spot and into a pile of plastic bins in another corner of the room.
Nikon tries to recall if they've seen anything like this creature before, and can't think of anything. It's quite possible that this is a brand new contact situation. Still, looking at how the creature moves, Nikon is able to realize that the creature seems to be panicking now that its nest has been torn open.