After leaving the Audience Hall Pek said goodnight and headed into the building to the north. From out of the Alabak's Gold Quantros and Bron swam down to meet the others. To the south were many homes, small one storey dwellings. As the evening was approaching many Sedrians were coming from east and west to return home. The Rebels gathered many strange looks and stares but were not threatened in any way.

Paddling out of the Audience Hall, Lyla drifted through the city until she spied the two Jedi coming to meet them. She was secretly relieved that they'd not been present for the meeting with the high priest, figuring Quantros might lecture Cardo on searching his feelings or something and start a war. But she acknowledged his earlier words, which approached an apology and figured he intended to behave a little better from now on. She hoped. She'd give them a chance, and probably another if it came to it.

She gazed around the city, observing the Sedrians returning home for the evening – how could they tell, anyway? She saw them talk and joke, families gather again. As weird as they looked and acted, Lyla had always found all aliens to be more or less the same at heart. Here and there she spotted strange green coral formations, adorned with shining strands of kelp and gleaming, colourful shells that floated in the currents. Parcels were being stacked under some, and she guessed a religious festival was coming up. Like Life Day.

Lyla waved to Quantros and Bron. 'Hi. How're things on the Gold?'

Looking around in wonder, Bron swims towards the city. His eyes peeled for anything that may be resonating with the force. He sees Lyla before too long, and nods an acknowledgement  towards her.

"It was beginning to be a tad claustrophobic. Thought we ought to take a swim. Also there is something here, that resonates with me quite strongly in the Force, I thought it deemed worthy of investigating. If this Golden Sun is in fact a force talisman, the Sendarians have much more to fear from the empire than previously thought." Bron tells Lyla before pausing for a moment.

"How went the introductions, do we have an ally here?" he finishes.
This message was last edited by the GM at 22:53, Thu 24 Dec 2015.

Observing the city and its inhabitants Lyla can see many homes all around, east, west and south. To the north is a giant shell structure, rising more than fifteen metres over the sea bed. To the south-west is a sprawling market in which the renegade Sedrian had been apprehended. Although many are now leaving the marketplace there are many stalls and shops still open.

'Maybe. Pek – he's like a prince around here – is on our side and will show us to the Imperial base tomorrow. His dad Cardo is the high priest, and he's, well, thinking about it. He doesn't want a fight, but I don't think the Imperials will give him that option. Pek helping us is a secret, so don't blab.' Lyla explained, succinctly if not elegantly.

'By the way, this Golden Sun – whatever it is – is kind of sacred to the Sedrians, and it's "for them". They won't speak of it to outsiders, so don't offend them by talking too much about it.' she added with a warning look at the two Jedi, who certainly had a track record at that kind of thing.

"By no means do I wish to offend them or take a sacred relic from them, however it is our duty to protect it from the evil hands of the Empire. What of word on our illustrious ally Mors Odrion?" Bron says eyeing the building from which Lyla just exited.

'It is. Unfortunately, our duty is complicated by not knowing what we're protecting.' Lyla shrugged, but this gesture was rather lost by wafting about underwater. She hoped the pause was sufficient.

'Not a clue. The Sedrians say they know nothing about Odrion and Rekara, and I believe them. Smart money is that the Imperials have him. That's what Pek guesses, and he's taking us to look at their "floating shell" tomorrow.'

Lyla looked around for Tera, hoping for a medical opinion. 'Is it worth taking Rekara out? Coming out here might jog her memory. If nothing else, she can stretch her fins.'
This message was last edited by the player at 00:35, Sat 26 Dec 2015.

Jason just follows along behind Lyla, and listening to the conversation around him, while he thinks on the situation.

"How far do we go with that duty though?"

Jason doesn't exactly enjoy bringing up the subject, but he feels someone should. And if it comes up, well it's bound to be a difficult situation.

"Hopefully it won't come to anything like that. But what if they refuse to let us anywhere near this Golden Sun. Do we have any right to force our help upon them? Would we be all that different from the Empire? Well.. Like I said, hopefully it won't come to that.."

There is of course another possibility, at least temporarily.

"Alternatively, maybe we can destroy or disable this imperial facility.. That would probably put a stop to their activities at least for a while"

"They need to think that it either has been destroyed or is no longer here. If my feeling are right, and the Golden Sun is a force relic they will not stop until it is destroyed or they have it in their hands. Tell me of the building you met his holiness in." Tristan says as he floats there looking around, but his eyes always coming back to the building they had their meeting in.

'We can only give the Sedrians all the information they need and let them make their own choices – good or bad. We do what we can around that, and pick up the pieces after.' Lyla answered Jason. 'But I think they'll cooperate. Pek is on our side. Cardo doesn't want a war, but knows now he doesn't have that choice. And they worship the water – they go with the flow.' And in her own wind-based faith, she could understand that.

'Whatever this Golden Sun is,' she began testily to Bron, annoyed at this talk of "Force" again, 'We don't know what it is yet. I'm guessing it's what dragged down our ship, but it's too soon to make plans around it. Our orders are: find Odrion; find out what the Imperials are up to; and learn what we can about this Golden Sun, or at least what the Imperials plan to do with it. That last part is tricky, of course. But this is a search-and-rescue, scouting mission. Putting a stop to the Imperials isn't on the agenda, but would be a bonus if we can do it.'

'It's just his house. Fancy place, but there's not much to tell. We didn't see much of it.' Lyla pointed it out and a few features, like the tunnels linking to surrounding buildings, but couldn't elaborate much further.

"If the Galactic Empire is anything like the Sith Empire, then they'll be after the Golden Sun because of the legends surrounding it," Quantros said, his wetsuit's comlink letting him join the conversation. "We should learn as much as we can without offending the local population. I have a feeling that there's more to it than any one of us believes. I'll volunteer to look into it, if need be." Quantros continued swimming behind Bron, reaching out with the Force in secret.

OOC: 17:57, Today: Quantros Starbound rolled 15 using 1d20+7.  Use the Force: Sense.

Is anyone watching us? Is there hostile intent?

The building Lyla pointed out was ornate and central to the city. Around it were other ornate buildings, buildings large enough to house many Sedrians and house meetings of the city. The shell dome to the north remained closed yet Bron, Tera and Quantros sense Force emanations from it.

'Do you think you can do that sensitively?' Lyla inquired, trying her best to sound neutral, that she wasn't asking "Do you think you can do that without aggravating anybody?" Quantros not offending someone would be a fine thing to see. 'We should ask around it: what was that golden glow, what pulls the ships down, stuff like that.'

Gazing over the city, Lyla reflected on the giant shell domes that enclosed or made some buildings, commenting with a grimace 'You know, I'd hate to see the crabs and shell-fish around here.'

Rynn listened to the banter of the group, taking in all the comings and goings of this strange culture that he could have never even guessed existed. "Well, if we want to ask around the best thing to do would be to find a cantina. Once we buy a round information usually starts flowing... though I don't know how drinking works down here."

'I imagine you start by opening your mouth.' Lyla answered with a smirk, then went on with another 'But never mind that – how do you drink? I mean, seriously, how, through that mask?'

'Anyway, I haven't seen anything much like a cantina, but we could always start back at that inn. I want to find out what's going on in this city, make sure we're not stepping in something nasty.'