May 12th

OOC: Dude, i was just saying to not have an outburst. Not to go ahead and take the damn thing.

Higaide only the usual amount of Air energy in the area. Responding to the question; "No, no eyes or mouth, but you can still see (quite well, in fact) and hear and speak of course." He finishes filling out some of his paperwork. "So can I jot you down for the process?"

OOC:Sorry for kinda deciding unilaterally, Rory, but i'm guessing you're not on board with this either.

"Sorry, no. Didn't mean to waste your time, but i think i need to think a little more on this no mouth business before i really commit. Thanks anyway, i'll get out of your hair."

Then looks at Rory.

"Oh, unless you want to, uh..." - vaguely points near Jonathan's general direction (far enough not to be rude), as if wondering whether Rory wants to sign up.

OOC
No, I understood you right. I was telling your character that we shouldn't sign up to investigate because we just know everything now. You may want to ask your friend how he ended up where he is right now, or what his real job is at this place. What is this place called again?

Rory just leaves the line, disgusted.

OOC: Well sure, i wasn't gonna do that regardless.

"Well, guess that's that. Thank you, have a nice day." - Higaide bows out of the line.

.....................

Once they're out of earshot.

"Alright, so no body swap into a construct. I dunno, you wanna..." - he feels weird saying it - "...get a job?"

Rory looks down at the crate he's been toting. "We need somewhere to put this. I am thinking they may just tell us about jobs while we 'take our time and relax', as it were. And we really just want to snoop around, right? If we need a job to get were we're interested in going, we can ask about it later."


One might notice that Rory is overall very offput by the circumstances the party have found themselves in, considering what he came here to do.

Higaide seems rather awkward about it too.

He shrugs - "I... guess."


So.... i guess the party will be moving to the deadbeat line.

Both Rory and Higaide will find the deadbeat line quite alien, in character. There are multiple Humans in nice, clean uniforms helping everyone (including the two) out, asking what they need food wise, if they have family or special needs, any allergies, any medical requirements, how big of a space they need to live in, and the like. Everything is jotted down along with names and they're pushed forward into another line once done with a piece of paper they're given with their info, and several fairly large metal carts being pulled by some exceptionally large aurochs are waiting to carry them to the next step of the process.

I will give them my fake name, but otherwise I will answer honestly. I have no debilitating or bothersome ailments or allergies. With regards to living space, I will say that we require separate rooms, otherwise just your basic setup with room for furniture. I will not take any food. I am starting to wish I brought food. I do have water though, and I will drink some.

I heave my crate inside one of the carts where me and Higaide will sit and wait to be processed. "Whatever they're doing here, they're not gonna get the drop on us." I am super ready to destroy the people who are Reaperfying my fellow humans.

Just as soon as we've snooped around enough to know who's pulling the strings, what their intentions are, where we are, and how to stop them or dismantle their machinations.

I'll give them old Logan's name as my own (the original owner of the workshop Higaide worked at when he was a kid), since i don't think anyone will buy that Briznan of Moonblade might be a Human name.

Higaide shares Rory's enthusiasm, but with a huge caveat. All the humans living and working here are essentially held hostage to whoever they're dependent on. Even if the 3 of us were able to take down whatever organization is behind this, if we destroy their infrastructure, we're condemning these people.

Even if the general population hasn't been brainwashed (likely not), they're reduced to sheep. They've been through so much crap, that they'll jump on an airship to who knows where for the promise of being whisked away from their troubles; that's how weak they are. We suddenly pull this system out from under them, and they crumble.

What i'm saying is, we need to be surgical in how we do this, or we could end up destroying our own kind.

The GM waits patiently for the party to do something.

Arch wrote:several fairly large metal carts being pulled by some exceptionally large aurochs are waiting to carry them to the next step of the process.

We are getting into one/two of these. I'm bringing cryo-Javan.

Just to make this clear before we do another time jump, neither of you are doing anything until you reach your destination?

I can't honestly think of something to do in the meantime.

Well, I might drum my fingers on the box, look about suspiciously, but if we've really got along way to go on these carts...I dunno, I think we really will have to just sit here and wait it out like the rest of the refugees.

So, I guess we'll both be rolling Awareness, and Sense Motive vs the staff who decide to speak to us on our way there, if they are able. Especially if there might chance to be some nonhumans mixed in or not staff, or some humans who look like their job is something different than the expressed purpose of taking care of the refugees or otherwise funneling them to their final destination.

There's no real staff who go out of their way to speak to the group, although they won't shy away from questions if asked. They are, naturally, all Human. Rory does catch the eye of a few people who look like they carry themselves more professionally and with that rigid military back then the others, and it takes little time for them to openly admit upon questioning that they're here to scout out the refugees for possible recruits for work or augmentation.

Okay. I pose as someone who would like to return to work, but isn't feeling ready yet, and so I would like to hear what's available or get a brochure of sorts explaining briefly what kind of work is in demand.

And I'd like to hear about the higher-ups who organized all this, the important people to bear in mind.

The list of available work is rather large. The one thing that's emphasized is that there's 'high skill' jobs like medics and mages and architects, and 'low skill' jobs like dock worker, laborer, farmhand, etc. But both are stated to pay equally, and if asked about this the response is given that they feel it's nonsensical for unequal pay as it just encourages elitism and classism.

The Humans present name drop several people you've never heard of before when discussing who and what has organized this, but the one name that sticks out in your mind pretty clearly is a word you recognize; Vyeotian. If pressed, they will admit without hesitation that the Vyeotians have initiated and funded this entire expedition for the Humans for the last several months.

That is what the player knows to be a practice of a political ideology which has good intentions but ultimately fails in some fashion.

Rory, however, just gawks at the idea that a dock worker would be given pay equal to someone who literally saves lives around the clock. It's just ridiculous to him, and his tone in his response carries doubt and (perhaps a tad rudely) dismissal.

They've been doing this for months? I'm shocked. Then I'm not, because of course they have, but they're saying they had humans in their ranks before Dereth was even aware of the lassels. How is that possible? I of course say none of this.

Here is what I do say. What do these people know about the Vyeotians? They are working for them, and if I'm gonna work for them, I'm gonna want to know more about them. Not that I don't appreciate the attempt to see that the human race is preserved and taken care of, but what do they get out of it? If I'm going to work for them sometime in the future, I'm going to want to know more about who I'll be working for.

Higaide has a real bad feeling about this.

The person looks at Rory with a bit of a blank surprise on his face, and responds thusly, "Why wouldn't the Vyeotians want to see their people preserved and taken care of?"

"What? Uh. They're human? Where'd they come from? Unless...I hadn't realized that people from Vesayen had arrived on this land way before you or me. I thought it was just us refugees vs the other races out here, and that maybe the burun or elves decided to take us somewhere out of sight and out of mind."

This gets a Diplomacy check. I am trying to coax him to divulge more about the origins of the people who founded the Vyeotians.

The person in question has, sadly, little information on their origins except that they did not come from the Lassels, and have been here for around 40 years or so. They apparently faced a mass extinction crisis which they barely survived, though there's nothing but rumors about what that could have been. Most of them aren't biologically Human anymore of course, since their preferred method of existence is in the massive metal bodies they constructed for themselves.

No. It couldn't have been. The Dead Wastes?

Stupefied at this revelation, Rory murmurs, "You mean, as 'sentinels'?"

"Listen, I'd very much like to meet them sometime. Soon. When will that be possible?"