Wait for the frogs to arrive. Are there any minerals that I can emphasize with on their ship?
You don't think there are - they don't seem to have bothered with having an anchor on it, and you're not sure where else they'd have rocks on there.
But in any case, they arrive, and seem to pay no attention to you whatsoever in favor of turning all their eyes on Eccentrica, who takes mostly naked charge on what you suppose are negotiations, gesturing and making noises while the Frog People do the same.
Eccentrica sort of wished that the tearaway clothes were as easy to put on as they were to take off, but it was damn hard to get clothing that form fitting to go on properly at the best of times. Still, this was good. Rescued by sailors, honestly, things could not be much better.
Hold my torn garments to myself artfully as the sailors get nearer, making sure to expose tantalizing slivers of 'the goods' by 'accident' as I call out to our saviors. Damsel in Distress is fun act, particularly when in dis dress.
[Finesse: 8+4]
They don't speak your language, and you sure as hell don't speak theirs, but you make up the difference with carefully measured exposure as you barely cover yourself up as the frog boat approaches closer, the Frog People on board staring transfixed at your antics, the goods on display sufficiently recognizable to cross the visual language barrier. They start conferring with each other in their croaking language, a particularly large one holding the oars stealing glances at you, eyes swiveling as he gulps.
They take turns in asking you halting, awkward questions, and you respond with sweeping gestures and endearingly distressed noises (you don't bother coming up with actual words), making a show of barely holding together the fleeting remains of your modesty. You think you arrive at some measure of primitive dialogue by the end of it, or at least you think you do, as the really large frog makes a little room on the boat, looking at you with a toothless open mouth that it takes you a moment to recognize as the frog version of an enthused grin while the others croak and gesture at you, then at the capsule, probably quite interested in what it might be but not at all able to articulate how exactly.
Darn. Well, since we're waiting for the frog people to arrive anyway, use this time to calm down and stop being delirious.
[Mind: 10-1]
You'd love not being delirious, but to be honest it's not like you get a conscious say in the matter as the room spins about, your vision darkens at random intervals and you see faces of the people you once knew swim around the conical ceiling of the pod, the feeling of space cockroaches nipping at you on the floor failing to leave you.
You think you've spent too much time in here, and so you decide to clamber on out past the good doctor and rest your carcass on the side of the capsule, hanging on the side as you suck air and try to not lose it or at least lose it at a manageable pace.
Wound Changed: Delirious -> WeakHelp Eccentrica with hailing the ship
You feel like Eccentrica doesn't really need any help in getting the attention of these Frog People, as the boat gets ever closer and the half a dozen crew gape at her peculiar, shapely form.
[Mind: 9-1]
You observe as she manages through a series of hoots and other noises you didn't know she could make to successfully negotiate a spot for herself on the boat straight out of here right next to the very largest of the frog sailors, and it's about at the point when some of the others start to get a better sense of the capsule that you get the feeling that they're not necessarily committed to bringing any of
you along at this point, though the capsule definitely seems like something they'd love to get their grubby froggy hands on.
Hold on to my net, but don't do anything with it quite yet. Try to get a better look at the approaching frog people.
[Mind: 12+1]
You poke your head slowly out the hatch as the goings-on evolve up top, and examine the Frog People, scanning them with a predatory precision, sizing them up.
Hm. They seem to be about what you'd expect of the natives - metal knives and swords, rather colorful clothing optimized for lightness so that they can leap and swim with little difficulty. As they speak, you spot the glint of a heavy metal stud in some of their tongues, less of an aesthetic element and more of a weighting measure. They speak enthusiastically among themselves in one of their frog languages - you pick up light influences of Simple Galactic for certain things like the capsule when they finally manage to take their eyes off Eccentrica long enough to look at the rest of this seaborne loot they've found.
Your eyes are also drawn to some of the things in their possession. The largest of them has half of a set of binoculars, broken in half to make for two looking glasses, and their knives appear to be made of worked circuit boards, sharp as all hell, and a number of other technological odds and ends adorn each of them as minor decorations - a bit of high-grade glass here, some unconventional plastics there. These seem to be rather prestigious sea trawlers, you would guess. The large one in particular is probably important.
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Topic: The Pillared Garden: A Miracle of Rare Device (Read 26039 times)