"Okay, but do we have enough? It's not like they are used for much more than repairing the hull in an emergency. Most ships don't carry more than two or three." Lamar asked.
This message was last edited by the player at 22:00, Sat 01 Jan 2022.

'Right, of course it is, thanks.' Lyla replied, giving a short and cheery wave to the leaving Alluuvian, before turning back to the team with a grimace. Once again, she found herself with no options. 'Even without the language barrier, I'm not sure how much information we're likely to get out of these guys. But I want to know who they fought with, so I guess we're going to have go through with this... Or I'm going to go through with this, I won't ask the rest of you to risk yourselves.' she declared. 'I have a breather, flight suit, and Twi'lek physiology, and  I've survived worse, so I probably stand the best chance.' she estimated, fairly confident and only partly hopeful.

'Maybe the rest of you could follow in the Gold in aquatic mode. Would it be okay in that water?'

OOC The Wayfarer has 6 spacesuits and 10 breath masks

OOC So what's the plan?

OOC: Lyla will suit up and go into the water after Anyar for the ceremony. The others can follow in suits or in the Gold as you like. I hope the Anguillans don't expect us all to do it.

Lamar heads quickly to the Gold and starts getting her ready for submersible operations.

"You sure you want to be alone there? If you need a second, I'm volunteering."

Anyar and the host of Anguilla warriors led Lyla to a submerged cave a few kilometres away. The spacesuit and breathing apparatus protected Lyla from any toxins.

Lamar prepared the Gold and followed.

The cave mouth was black. The entrance was too small for any starship to enter.

The Anguilla began to chant and Anyar order Lyla into the cave ”you… stay… in… cave… worthy… any… who… don’t… enter… cave… leave… world”

Klyn will also equip himself, just in case things go south and he would need to get out and help Lyla.

She dived into the water and swam after the Anguillans, after a while reporting that her suit integrity and her health were holding. 'Hey – if I don't make it, you can volunteer too!' Lyla called back to Klyn over the comlink, her tone flippant as she tried to keep upbeat about all this. It wouldn't be her first time walking (or swimming) into an unknown environment, or taking part in a native ritual, or trusty her life in the hands of the mother goddess.

But when she arrived at the black mouth of the cave, she began to feel her first doubts. When Anyar said that if she didn't go in, she would have to leave the world, she had to wonder if he really to leave life as well. But she wasn't afraid of the dark, her Twi'lek eyes were well-adapted to low-light conditions, and she'd been through worse than sitting in a cave for a while. 'Okay.' she agreed, paddling up to the entrance. 'I stay in cave how much time? This not last long.' she reminded Anyar, tapping her breather.

Inside the cave looked pitch black as Lyla approached. Anyar handed Lyla a bone with phosphorescent seaweed attached. He then handed her a leaf of seaweed “you… eat” at Lyla question he replied “must… stay… in… cave… to… be… worthy.”

The Anguillan leader looked at the Alabak’s Gold ”must…go…in…cave…or…leave”

Lyla looked down at the seaweed leaf, and sighed, released a stream of bubbles from the breather that blocked her mouth from ever being able to eat it underwater. These Anguillans really were awfully choosy about free help. And kind of dumb. 'I must eat this and stay in cave?' she confirmed before Anyar altered the deal any further. Then she tapped her breather that transmitted her voice through the water. 'I cannot eat. I cannot breathe.' she tried to tell him, but she took the seaweed, her stomach churning already. Damn thing was probably poisonous too. 'I go in ship, eat in air, then come back, okay? You can watch me. You come.' She beckoned Anyar to follow her before he could argue, leave, or come up with some new and worse test of worthiness.

Swimming back to the ship, she communicated 'Lyla to Alabak's Gold, they want me to eat this seaweed too. Open a ventral airlock, I'll do it in the air bubble.'

The Anguillans were happy to allow Lyla to enter the Alabak’s Gold to eat her leaf and gather up her companions for their trip into the black cave. Anyar gave Lyla more leaves "for...your...tribe."

'Ah, thanks, they'll love them, I'm sure...' Lyla said quickly, trying to catch all the leaves before they floated away from her hands. Then she realised these seaweed leaves were meant to be more than just complimentary snacks. 'Oh, you mean all my tribe must go in cave? Not only me, the leader?'

"Yes...to...be...worthy"

Like talking to a Dagobah parrot. Lyla thought dismally. 'Ah, okay, bit of a mistranslation then. I thought me taking a risk for my tribe would make us fairly worthy already. But, alright, we'll all take this risk for the Rebel Alliance. Wait here.'

Lyla swam up into the airlock, breaking the water and calling the rest of the crew. 'Alright, change of plan. They want us all to take part in their ceremony. Everyone they saw on the beach earlier, anyway. So suit up, eat some of this weed, and come with me.'

While they did that, she examined the seaweed, but struggled to work out anything without time or equipment. She did know a lot of rituals like these involved plants that were, in some way, psychoactive.


OOC:
17:37, Today: Lyla Rahn rolled 11 using 1d20+10.  Knowledge (life sciences).

Lamar looked to see if the Gold would fit in the cave.

The cave entrance was small. No vehicles would fit inside.

"I'm not leaving her alone" Klyn said.
"Do you wish to go or do you feel confident in handling the Gold?"

"Damnit. We're going to all have to go. It won't make much difference if I'm off planet. It would take too long for me to get back to do any good if things got harry. Guess we could park it here and swim in." Lamar said sighing.

When Lamar, Klyn and Lyla prepared to enter the black cave they were individually handed a bone with phosphorescent seaweed and another leaf for them to eat.

The Anguillans at this point were all chanting.

Lamar had always hated being underwater. The cold dark along with the pressure combined with strange creatures flying around him gave him a shiver in his back that didn't seem to go away until he was out of the water. So of course he had to do this. Fraking primitives. He thought to himself as he waited with the L.T. and his team.
He was confused at the leaf, as he obviously can't eat it with his helmet on, and without his helmet he drowns.

Lamar was given time to go eat the leaf in their spaceship.

Once they were ready, Lyla had waved Anyar to come to the airlock so he could watch them each eat their seaweed leaf, and only one leaf, while above the water in the airlock. No matter how bad they tasted. And apparently they weren't too poisonous, for they were all still swimming. For now, anyway.

So, after swimming back to the cave entrance, Lyla intercepted the Anguillan as it offered Lamar another leaf. 'No no no, we ate our leafs. In our ship. In the beach we take with us. Anyar watched us.' she tried to explain, pointing to mouths and ship and Anyar and eyes as needed. Instead, she took and passed around the bones tied with phosphorescent seaweed for use as torches.

She switched to a private comms channel, and beckoned the team to follow her into the dark cave. Have gone through this water-world thing on Sedri, Lyla was less bothered by it all now, though dealing with the Sedrians was seemingly like a snap compared to the Anguillans now. 'Come on, let's get this over with before they come up with something else. And if we're still not worthy, we'll have to leave them to the Empire.'

The cave was very dark as the Rebels entered.

OOC Continued in other threads…