Blai in The Wandering Inn
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This is inconvenient.

Klbkchhezeim was not, in fact, summoned by Guardsman Dorrix for his expertise in languages. It is simply protocol to escalate difficult immigration cases to a Senior Guardsman, and Klbkch is one of the more reliable Senior Guardsmen at—not necessarily making problems go away, but at making them no longer your problem. Despite Guardsman Dorrix having taken all the correct actions, Klbkch nonetheless finds himself not too pleased to be saddled with a stranger who does not speak any language known to the Free Hive. Which is in itself strange.

At least the human is well-behaved and did not scream or attempt to flee.

Technically, this human is not to be barred entry to the city as his limited belongings do not qualify him for a customs process, and he has not otherwise incurred reason for detainment. In practice—as Guardsman Melys here has likely identified—allowing a human who does not speak the language into Liscor, unsupervised, will not result in desirable outcomes.

Why is he here? It is evidently non-urgent. It must be unplanned, given the lack of offering even rudimentary phrases in the Common. He does not appear visibly injured or distressed. Klbkch's mind jumps to "teleportation accident", but that is not an event that occurs in any regularity in real life to qualify as a legitimate hypothesis.

If he is here to cause trouble, there are easier ways than drawing to the attention of City Watch before even entering the gates.

A [Telepathy] at the Mage's Guild will run him four gold. The Watch Captain will likely not consider this a justified use of the discretionary budget. The Queen will certainly not consider this a justified use of the Hive's resources. He himself is not willing to pay four gold for translation for a stranger, never mind his nominal salary largely exist gathers dust otherwise.

Klbkch remembers his first-contact protocols, but has not practiced them since before the exodus. He would need to adapt them, and it is tedious and not an efficient use of his time.

Then again, his Watch duties are largely not an efficient use of his time. And it will be a change of pace from settling noise complaints from snippy grandmothers.

 

He makes a beckoning motion, points at the tower of the guardhouse behinds the gates where it peeks over the wall, flaps his fingers in front of his mandibles, and gestures to and fro between himself and Blai.

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Well, that isn't especially clear but Blai can... slowly get up and take a step forward?

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Bugman walks back through the gate and gestures Blai to follow.

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Okay. He will follow the bug man. If you don't want to go around flagrantly breaking laws in a strange place where you don't have the language, probably following people who want you to do that is a good step one.

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He's taken around the side and into the gatehouse, up a flight of stone stairs, down a corridor and finally into a disused interview room. It's dimly lit, with an old table and a couple of chairs stacked in the corner. The city is visible through a barred window.

Klbkch sets chairs and gestures for Blai to sit. He produces writing materials from a drawer.

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Blai sits and waits.

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Klbkch will attempt to establish some vocabulary using objects around the room. "Yes", "no", "speak", "understand", questions and statements about location and identity.

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He can give his name as Select Blai Artigas, sure, and where is he please?

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He identifies himself Klbkch in return.

He sketches a map of Izril

Credit: https://thewanderinginn.fandom.com/wiki/Izril?file=Prototype_map.jpg

and points out their location in the mountain pass at the neck of the continent. "Liscor," he says.

"Where are you from?" he asks Blai.

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"Cheliax. Avistan. Golarion."

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He has never heard of those. Puzzling.

"Liscor—city." He gestures out the window, indicating the city limits. "Izril—continent." He circles the continent on the map. "Cheliax, Avistan, Golarion?"

While Blai answers, he's going to get started on another map.

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"Avistan continent."

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"Avistan" might be a mangling of "Chandrar". Blai does not look like he is from the southern continent, but it fits with the unknown language.

His sketch of the known world is not as precise as his of Izril, but it should be recognizable.

He points. "Chandrar. Avistan is Chandrar?"

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"No."

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"Where is Avistan?" What was the other thing he said—"Where is Golarion?"

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"Golarion is -" He makes a ball shape with his hands like he's holding a sphere.

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Golarion is a... bubble universe? It is an incredulous claim, but—such things are known to exist.

"How did you travel to Liscor? Why did you travel to Liscor? Can you travel from Liscor to Golarion?"

(Hopefully Blai has picked up at least the general sense of the interrogatives.)

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Have they covered "I don't know"?

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Yep.

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Yeah, he doesn't know. (In the last case he doesn't know the spell, in the other he's just clueless.)

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If Blai does come from a dimensional bubble, being stranded by an malfunction becomes the more so likely. Though the rare dimensional collapse Klbkch has seen did not look survivable enough to leave a human this intact.

It may be worth a [Telepathy] after all.

After defining some vocabulary around trade, he says,

"The Mage's Guild will sell a [Telepathy] spell so you can understand language with one person for a half day. Can you pay?"

(They've roughly covered "day", "person" and "language"; "Mage's Guild" and "spell" are new.)

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He is not carrying much cash because it turned out most cash was Evil. "...Day, night, day, I understand language."

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It takes Klbkch a moment to parse.

"You have a Skill to understand language? You can do it tomorrow? After one sundown and sunrise?" He points at the sun to explain the words.

That is objectively a very odd Skill to have.

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"Yes. Sunrise, I understand language."

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"We can give you a room for one night. No pay. Sunrise, we will speak after you understand the language."

(All the words are known.)

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