The cloaked figure awakens to find himself lying in some sort of puddle. His head aches, but his nostrils quickly inform him that he is still in the garbage chute. It is dark about him, but a sliver of light shines through what appears to be a small entrance twenty or so meters away. By the light of this source, he is able to determine that the walls of the chute are actually made of stone. In fact, the chute appears to be a cavern in which the rubbish from above is simply dumped.

He becomes aware of Bane, several meters away, who appears to be searching through the filth about him, as if looking for something.

The cloaked figure suddenly becomes very forgiving of the sharp, pointed object which is jamming into his back. Rolling over, he pulls the cube out from underneath him. He is also pleased to see Sora's lightsaber is still attached to his belt.

Bane glances over as he hears the cloaked figure move, and ceases his search as he spots the cube.

"Awake are you?"

"Aren't you observant. How long have I been unconscious?"

"Not long," Bane replies, beginning to clamber down the rubbish pile and towards the cave opening, "A couple of minutes maybe."

The cloaked figure also rises, and, after swaying slightly, begins to make his way down after Bane.

"You might want to grab him," Bane waves a hand back at Sora's unconscious form, lying halfway down the pile, "He is your friend after all."

The figure seems to feel that this is a fair comment, and begins to clamber back up the pile. Then, with Sora in the usual position on his shoulders, he begins to follow Bane to the exit.

Stepping outside, they find themselves at the very bottom of the sinkhole, and estimate they must have fallen nearly one hundred meters. They are suddenly rather thankful for the squishy, decomposing food which doubtless stopped them from being splattered across the cave after falling such a distance. Down here it is dark and shadowy, even though the sun is still a good couple of hours from setting. A little further down stands the mine entrance, and around them are hundreds of tunnels and holes, hollowed into the sinkhole as living quarters for the stumpy creatures.

"Well," says Bane, "Now all we need to do is to get back up there," he points a finger at a series of landing platforms far above.

"Indeed."
This message was last edited by the GM at 04:40, Mon 15 Jan 2018.

"The question," Bane continues, "is how?"

"It is."
This message was last edited by the GM at 04:40, Mon 15 Jan 2018.

Their planning discussion seemingly finished, the pair begin to trudge into the streets outside. A number of the creatures waddle about, mostly in identical mining uniforms. While the pair are thrown many strange looks, none of the creatures attempt to converse with them. The creatures instead seem content to whisper amongst themselves, glancing back at the unlikely pair long after they have past.

"The fact is," Bane observes as they walk, "that we need a way to communicate with these things if we are to find a way up there."

"As if you could communicate with the runts," the cloaked figure mutters, throwing a dark glance at the nearest creature.

"What we need," Bane continues, oblivious to the figure's comment as his eyes alight on a small stall with several damaged and battered droids beside it, "Is a protocol droid."

"A protocol droid?" the cloaked figure repeats, skeptically.

"Indeed."

The pair approach the stall, but to Bane's frustration the stall only has three droids available, and none of them protocol droids. One is an old mining droid, missing one of its claws, the second is a GNK-series droid, which looks as if it was dropped from the restaurant onto a pile of sharp rocks, and the final droid is an R5 unit, which, while covered in grime, seems actually in a serviceable condition.

Bane's initial dismay is replaced by a calculating air as he examines the R5 unit.

"An idea. I can understand Binary. Now, suppose this R5 unit has been programmed to understand... whatever it is that these creatures speak, which it likely has, assuming it is a mining cast off."

"Go on..."

"Well, assuming it has, then I can speak Basic to it, it can speak Binary to a one of these creatures who understands that, then it can respond to me in Binary, and I can translate it to you in Basic. A bit cumbersome, I admit, but if we cannot find an affordable protocol droid then it might be better than nothing?"

The cloaked figure looks as if he certainly agrees that this is cumbersome, but he doesn't seem to have any better ideas, and shrugs.

"I don't see any protocol droids around here."