"Ugh, guys, something's not right."

"What something? Hyperdrive readings nominal."

"It's not the drive, it's something... around us."

"Huh. Something weird in hyperspace, Zelenka, run –"

The whole city shakes as the tunnel around it destabilizes, dozens of alarms go on at once.

"Agh, damn, dropping out of hyperspace now!"

Atlantis falls out of hyperspace window over a planet. Not in orbit, rather, rapidly falling down.

"McKay! We're falling, no way I can get orbit. Get me a landing site!"

"Scanning the planet now, gimme a moment."

The planet has an Earth-like distribution of landmasses, with five main continents and vast oceans between them. It has ice at the poles and deserts near the equator, showing a wide range of climates.

The unlit part doesn't seem to have any artificial light visible.

They continent they're currently descending towards has deciduous forests and high mountain ranges. At the center of it there is a vast lake, relatively shallow for its surface area.

To the north of it it's possible to see more forests and plains and, in the distance, the shimmering of some kind of barrier covering miles and miles of territory.

"We're missing the oceans, but there's a lake we can land on!"

"Okay, aiming for the lake, can't be harder than the bay, right?"

As Atlantis plummets through the atmosphere, anyone on the planet can observe a large fireball streaking across the sky, passing over the ocean and heading towards the middle of the continent.

ABSOLUTELY NOT. The ANOMALY shall be RELOCATED to the TECHNOLOGICAL CONTAINMENT BUBBLE.

Oh, come on, it's going to be good!

The FACT that you are POSITIVE about the ANOMALY confirms my DECISION.

If you bubble them they're going to try and activate the Stargate, and while I would be delighted to watch the ensuing explosion, I prefer Golarion to keep working as a containment vessel for Rovagug.

The HUMANS aboard the ANOMALY are not SPELLCASTERS, they can't cast GATE.

I have CHECKED.

Desna, dear, back me up? Look at that ring of metal over there, I think you'll like it.

Oooooh, shiny! That is a loooong range! Too bad it needs another copy of the artifact at the other end, but still, it's so sparkly!

She would be delighted to meet the people who created it!

Otolmens dear, Nethys is right on this one. See that artifact? It would be really bad if it got activated while inside the Numeria Bubble.

(No, you really wouldn't like them.)

I'm going to KEEP AN EYE on them then. If this goes BADLY as is my PREDICTION then I will consider you BOTH RESPONSIBLE.

Should Lastwall evacuate?

No.

Should Lastwall investigate the event?

Yes.

Should the people investigating be at least fifth circle?

Yes.

Should the people investigating be at least seventh circle?

Unclear.

Should we expect this event to worsen our situation?

No.

Should we coordinate with other Worldwound Treaty signatories?

Unclear.

Uh, it seems like it's going to land near Lastwall.

She Scries and Messages her contact in Vigil asking if they're already on it.

Alex is a girl here, so they don't need her help.

"Splashdown in 10 seconds, hold on to something!"

As it approaches the planet, the flying city slows down dramatically, both from atmospheric drag and a valiant effort from the stardrive, before coming down on the surface of the water with a splash.

Impact knocks around people in the control room (and throught the city), but most manage to stay standing.

"And we're landed, good job Carson."

"Thanks Rodney. Where the hell are we?"

"What's our status, Dr. McKay?"

"I have no idea where we are, hyperdrive is bust, stardrive barely hanging on, and we're down to 60% of ZPM power. Other than that, surprisignly fine."

"Can we contact Earth?"

"Not until we figure out where we are to configure the gate, at least."

"We should check out the planet, maybe something will tell us what the hell happened."

Nope. Not his problem.

(The sound of crickets. A brook running between rocks. Definitely not the sound of care given.)

"Handsies, dears!" The rest of the party grumpily forms a circle and prepares for the spell.

Teleport. "Oh, nice we are exactly (1d100 = 71) on target today"

Fort Landing is as dilapidated as ever, but it's a pleasant summer day and the breeze that blows from the nearby shore is keeping the temperature acceptable.

Sana unrolls a scroll and takes a moment to read it.

Communal Phantom Steed.

Four translucent horses that look like they are made of water appear next to the four of them. The scroll does not crumble to dust.

They start riding towards the fallen star, and when they meet the waves their steeds keep trotting as if they were on land.

They keep a slow but steady speed, fast enough to get there quickly but also slow enough to allow them to start studying the object as they approach.

Over the next half an hour, Atlantis Expedition recovers from unexpected landing, reparis are begun on various systems damanged in the process, people pass through the infirmary to be checked up by Dr. Keller, and the city prepares to face the unknown.

"There's something approaching, four entities, ETA 30 minutes."

"Should we cloak the city?"

"Let's do it, and see what happens when they get close."

The city-ship's modified shield array activates, and the city appears to vanish, as if it wasn't there at all.

"Yupp, it's still there boss! It's some kind of invisibility effect, would need to get closer to tell you more."

"Thank you dear!" She blows him a kiss.

Could she not while they're in public?

It's a fight he knows he can't win, so he doesn't say anything.

"Well, they're still approaching."

"Marcy, dear, take the lead for the last part. Bring us close but just outside fireball range."

"Here we are."

"What does it look like from here?"

"It looks like... a city? But it's all made of metal, like a giant construct... Must have costed a pretty penny!"

"They've stopped. Look human... On translucent horses. Walking on water. At 18 kilometers an hour. And they're looking at us. With naked eyes."

"Drop the cloak, it's clearly not working, Teyla, Ronan, let's go meet them."

A group of four people emerges from one of the towers on the pier closest to the visitors, and heads towards them.

Oh, good, humans! She can do her job properly then, and not just be a human-shaped pair of boots of Teleport.

"Let's walk up to them. Leisurely."

They approach nonthreateningly, and if the people from the city (?) don't seem nervous they will get in speaking range.

"Good evening. Do you require assistance?"

That's such a weird language. Her Voice never fails to give her the correct words to communicate, but this language is completely different from anything she's ever heard.

"Nice to meet you. We seem to be a bit lost, actually. Can you tell us where we are?"

"This gorgeous lake is Lake Encarthan, the continent is Avistan, and the planet Golarion. Can we get on the... floor you're currently on? The steeds still have an hour or so in them, but it would be dreadful to be engrossed in conversation and end up drenched as a result."

He nods, and waits for them to climb up.

"Thank you. I'm Lieutenant Colonel John Sheppard, this is -" he gestures at his companions "Rodney, Teyla and Ronon."

"A pleasure to meet you, Colonel. I'm Sana Chartes, but feel free to just call me Sana. These are Sir Muris, Select Clepati, and Captain Gauntwood."

"Is your... city(?) damaged? The whole continent saw it falling down in a storm of fiery fire. We were sent here by the country of Lastwall to check what the cause is, and possibly establish first contact in case sapients were involved."

"We've had a bit of an accident, you could say. We're fine, and would welcome establishing contact, though we would like to know more about this planet before commiting to anything."

"What would you like to know specifically? Golarion is vast, every continent and every country within has its own culture. There really isn't much unifying us, beside the general prevalence of humans above other species in most cities. Oh, and the universe-killing god imprisoned inside the planet I guess."

"A universe-destroying god, huh. We should probably actually move to a proper room, if we're going to have extended talks."

He motions them to follow, leading them into the city, and up some stairs.

Also, he pressess a finger to his ear and says "Woolsey, we're going to conference room on west pier, floor 3, the locals sent a welcoming party soon as they saw us landing, come join us."

They follow, Sana leading the way.

"Yes. To be clear, it's actually a very serious problem. Its name is Rovagug and it's been imprisoned inside the planet since time immemorial. It's a very powerful god, so us mortals can't  do anything about it. It cannot act directly from Its prison, but It is known to influence people, sometimes entire cities. On the other hand, you're very unlikely to have issues stemming directly from Its actions."

"What spell did you use to communicate with your colleague? I did not recognize it."

"Spell? It’s city comms, radio, there's a field version too."

Some doors throughout the city open automatically as Sheppard approaches them, other require him to wave a hand at a thing near then, lights come on as if anticipating them, and eventually they arrive at a room with a large table, and Sheppard motions everyone to sit. 

And yet none of this reads as magic! Fascinating.

'Radio'. She thinks about the word, trying to mentally form sentences in the language they're speaking.  'Radiate', 'radio waves', 'radio antenna', 'antenna', 'electricity'. What does lightning of all things have to do with communication? 'Circuit', 'network', a net? Roads?  'Weather reports', 'radio communication', where are these people from? What kind of alchemy or clockwork powers the lights?

"I'm not familiar with the concept of radio, the only lightning we have here are thunderstorms and the occasional wizard spell."

"Well —"

Glance at Rodney. Unspoken "Langara".

"We can explain it, maybe trade you the tech, but we'd want to understand how it would impact things around here, before doing so."

"Rodney, was it? After your wise Colonel has deemed it safe, you should have Select Clepati introduce you to his cousins. You'd have a blast."

"But of course, it would be foolish to trust the first people you meet with the power to harness lightning! This whole city is a continuous source of fascination, even your doors are animated without magic."

"Before we go into impacts and politics, I'd love to know more about you. Where do you come from? What brought you here?"

"Actually, before you reply, let me update my colleagues." Uh, the language doesn't have a word for 'party member'.

She tell them that they look friendly enough, but that they want to understand more about the situation before sharing knowledge they have.

"We're from a galaxy far, far —"

Fine, fine. 

"As you probably figured out, we're from a different planet, we've had an accident and so aren't sure where we are in relation to it now."

"I gather it's not one of the eleven around our sun then. You look remarkably... human, for coming from a different planet."

"Humans are surprisingly common, though I'm not sure the standard explanation applies to this planet."

Another man walks into the room. 

"Hello, I'm Richard Woolsey, leader of Atlantis Expedition. What did I miss?"

"We were mostly getting to know each other."

"I'm Sana Chartes and my role is to establish first contact on behalf of Lastwall, a Lawful Good country. Pleased to meet you."

"Well, that was certainly quick. Pleased to meet you too. Is it that common to need to make first contact on this planet?"

"Not really, no. It's the first time it came up in my lifetime, but it is common to have to deal with unexpected events, and my team is specialized in dealing with the weird ones."

"I expect most polities that are not directly allied with us will send their envoys soon, but we pride ourselves in being efficient and effective at what we do. And we believe it is to your advantage to get someone Lawful Good in your corner."

'Corner', 'Ring', 'Boxing', 'Fight', 'Sport'. Why is fighting a sport and why does being in the corner mean that you are friendly?

"What does 'Lawful Good' mean, actually?"

"They are the fundamental ethical and moral categories. On the one axis you have Good and Evil. Good is helping others, working together, caring, Evil is selfishness, cruelty, slavery. On the other axis you have Law and Chaos. Law is order, obeying laws, keeping your oaths, being trustworthy, Chaos is following your hearth, not allowing the rules to prevent you from doing what's right, and being more flexible in how you achieve your goals."

"Lastwall is a Lawful Good country, but the people in it can and will have different alignment. Our leaders are almost all Lawful Good, but - as an example - I am Chaotic Good. As the saying goes, Lawful means you can have allies, Good means you can have friends, Lawful Good means you can have both. I am not a good example of Lawful, but being Good means that they trust me to do the right thing and on average be happy with the results. Select Clepati is Lawful Good, so if you have questions about Law I can ask him for his opinion."

"We have magic to allow you to speak our language, or us to speak yours, but they mostly have limited duration, which is why I am the one speaking with you. I have quirk that allows me to just be understood when speaking to anyone that has a language."

"And… there’s countries that are Evil, and agree that they're Evil?"

"Yes. I... was born in one. Cheliax is a country ruled by the forces of Hell. Well, not directly, but Abby - Abrogail Thrune II - has made a direct compact with Asmodeus" uh, they have a word for it, 'Asmodeus', 'King of Demons' what, no, he's not a demon lord??? - file for later "They have a complex system of education and culture that makes sure they can make as many people Evil as possible. They still mostly fail, there is Goodness in everyone."

"I expect them to be the next ones to shop up and... do you have magic or technology to protect your mind? You may need it against them."

"Is Hell... what it sounds like?"

'Hell', 'Fire', 'Torture', 'Eternal', 'Evil', 'Punishment'.

Yupp.

"Hell" delenda est "is the afterlife where Lawful Evil people go to. It is the domain of Asmodeus and his Archdevils. People get tortured until what's left of them is a devil, a creature of evil without free will, a pure instrument of tyranny and pride. If they're lucky. If they're not they're used as paving stones, suffering eternally in fire and while people step on them."

"Lastwall is Lawful Good, and was founded by Iomedae -  back when she was still mortal. Iomedae is the goddess of defeating Evil, of triage, of justice. I am working for Lastwall because even though I am Chaotic, I want to see Hell destroyed, Asmodeus defeated, everyone there recovered. Cheliax, my home, free from the grips of the Trice Damned Thrunes."

"Wow…"

He's going to process all of that later, and is the first to recover ability to speak via switching topics  

"You said something about protecting our mind, what did you mean?"

"We have several spells that influence people, or read their minds. I can demonstrate some if you want."

"How expansive is influence? Are there ways to tell someone is compromised?"

He mentally switches into "everyone can be a Goa'uld" mode, and though he has significantly less experience with this than Earth teams have, he has read enough reports. 

"It depends on the method used. On the lower end of the spectrum, a Charm Person will make someone seem like an ally even when they're not, and lasts approximately 2 hours per caster circle. A Suggestion will force someone do to something not obviously harmful and lasts about as much as Charm. On the upper end of the spectrum you have - at 2 days per caster circle - Dominate Person, which will allow you to outright control another person with a telepathic link and Geas, which is similar to Suggestion but basically impossible to resist and very hard to break."

"There is a spell to detect enchantment, called Enchantment Sight. Methods to break the influence also depend on the original's spell power, ranging from a simple Dispel to a limited wish requiring a powerful caster and a diamond about this big."

"If you would like to experience how it feels I can demonstrate an harmless command on you or one of your subordinates."

"There won't be lasting effects? Teyla?"

"Do it."

"No lasting effects, no, a Suggestion ends when the action is complete."

"Miss Teyla, your feet must hurt from all the walking we did, I Suggest (DC 22) you take your shoes off to let them rest."

1d20 + 3 (Wisdom) + 2 (Wraithkin) = 20

She reaches under the table, to take off her shoes, then looks slighly surprised when she's done.

"On our planet, as you grow more powerful as a warrior or mage, it gets easier to throw off the effect of most of these spells. I would be able to throw off a Suggestion about half the time, and reliably more than that if I expect it as a possibility, by using protection spells."

"Well, that was disturbing. We appreciate the warning."

"What would you require as assurances before starting to disseminate your knowledge?"

"We would want to be reasonably certain that our actions won't have destabilizing effect on your planet, or cause some catastrophic event. We've had... certain experiences that make us reservant of taking action too quickly."

"That seems sensible, wizards and catastrophic events go together like Peanut Butter and Jelly."

'Jelly', 'Jam', 'Marmelade'. With peanuts? These people are weird.

"In your assessment, if we mostly stay within our city, and maybe trade for food, how long we would be able to stay out of trouble? Because the impression I get is that our arrival may be an event out of itself."

"Yeah, it was incredibly visible. I think you'll have all sorts of people coming to investigate. I don't think you'll be able to stay out of trouble for long, honestly. Being in the middle of a lake helps somewhat, but only on the short term. The invisibility you had up earlier also helps if it's not too expensive. We were able to bypass it because we already knew where you were and Marcitor can cast See Invisibility. Which actually makes me wonder. Could you move your city? That would help with avoiding people."

"Can we?"

"We can abuse some of anti-ice systems to drag us around the lake, but not much more. Stardrive barely survived the landing."

"If the cloak is helpful, we should probably keep it up for now."

Tap on the ear - "Hey, Chuck, can you turn the city cloak back on?"

There's nothing noticable from the inside, but Atlantis once again disappears from view.

"If our arrival alone was sufficent to attract attention, we cannot allow ourselves to wait. This isn't a contat through the gate, mister Woolsy, we are in the middle of events, and should act accordingly."

"Should we just go and beat up Evil people? People admitting they are evil sounds like a good beating-up target to me."

"While appreciate your eagerness to beat up Evil people, I have a feeling that it would prove ineffective. Some Evil people are annoyingly hard to beat up, and the strongest ones tend to not stay dead."

"You'd be surprised how many things can be solved with communication and subtlety instead of violence."

"We should probably discuss what our next steps should be. While I've been given a great deal of latitude for this initial contact, you'd still need to talk directly to my superiors to start drafting a proper plan of collaboration. We can teleport us directly to the outskirts of Vigil, while bringing three additional people with us, four if we have Gauntwood hop into a bag of holding for the trip. You would be considerably safer while there, as our guests."

"How far away is Vigil? We would gladly accept your offer, but I wouldn’t want to go away from the city right after the landing, and when less well-meaning parties can be on their way here."

"Oh, it's just one Teleport hop away - it's less than 200 miles. We can bring you back here in a couple minutes if needed, and most of that time would be getting out of the Forbiddance and then potentially traveling from the island to the city again if the Teleport happens to not be precise."

"Well, we can work with that, I think. We'll need some time to arrange things in the city, how about half an hour?"

"Sure, the sooner the better, but I'd be surprised if half an hour makes a huge difference."

She relays to her party that the plan is to get these officers to Vigil in half a candlemark.

"The party is in place and awaiting your command."

Today is one of those days. The days where she wishes she was already in Hell instead of being surrounded by idiots.

"I told you to send an infiltration party, not to organize a picnic. What purpose does it serve for them to be waiting for me, exactly? Tell them to act immediately!"

"It will be done, Most High."

"One last thing. When this is over present yourself to the east wing temple for your punishment."

Sheppard takes his team and Woolsey to control room.

"You want to come?"

"Yes. I believe first contact with the local goverment on the planet we landed on is exactly the sort of thing I should be present for."

"Okay. Teyla, you stay here, we need someone in charge on Atlantis."

"Understood."

Tap on the ear, "Lorne, take someone with you and go get a jumper. We're going to a meeting via some sort of teleportation, should be within 200 miles. I'm taking a tracker, and want you to cloak and hover over us. Keep far away from people, it seems they can see through cloak."

"Also turn on comms relay on the jumper, should have the range to bridge us to Atlantis if we need it."

To all military personnel on Atlantis: "We are being informed about possible hostiles on the planet, everyone not from Atlantis, except people in conference room on the third floor of the west pier is assumed intruder and to be detained for further investigation. Mind control may be involved, so I want everyone on Goa'uld infiltrator protocol – never be alone, double the guard on sensitive locations, report all weird behavior to both your commanding officer and one of your fellows. Until I return, Teyla Emmagan is in charge."

With that over, and some time for everyone to get their gear (handguns and wraith stunners for weapons, it's a civil meeting after all), they come back to the conference room.

"Who of you will come with us to Vigil?"

"Me, Rodney, Ronon and Mr. Woolsey."

"I can bring along three people, whereas Sir Muris can bring two. I think it's better if you split into two groups of two, so that in the off chance something goes wrong we are more balanced and have a better chance to regroup and recover. It's very unlikely though, we both know Vigil very well, it would be surprising to land off target."

"Woolsey's with me, Rodney with Ronon."

"Really?"

"Want to swap?"

"No..."

"When you're ready you can grab our hands. We'll go first, and Sir Muris will follow immediately after."

She extends her left hand, and grabs Clepati's one with her right.

"Your turn in the bag, dude."

"I hate life."

He takes a deep breath and gets inside the Bag of Holding.

He takes Woolsey's hand, and then Sana's.

Ronon grabs Rodeny's hand rather unceremoniously, and then extends his to Muris.

Sana disappears (1d100 = 67) with her group.

"Let's go!"

The teleport feels vaguely familiar, not entirely unlike going through a Stargate.

They reappear ((fudged) 100) into the living room of a small house.

The floor is made of wood, as is most of the furniture. There are houseplants all over the room, the place is positively filled with them.

"Marco! Quante volte ti ho detto di avvisarmi prima di invitare i tuoi amici a casa! (How many times did I tell you to warn me before inviting friends home!) Povera me, la casa è un disastro ( Oh dear, the house is a mess)!"

Of course today would be the one time he misses a Teleport.

... SIGH.

Share Language.

He extends his hand towards Ronon.

He's still holding his hand after the teleport.

"Where are we?"

"... my mother's house."

"Which is ten minutes on foot from Vigil proper, so we should get going before the rest of your party gets nervous." He extends a hand inside the Bag of Holding and helps Gauntwood get out.

"Actually, if you have one of those communication devices, now would be a great time to use it to warn the others that we're safe and we're getting there soon."

"Devoandareciao (Mustgobye)."

He opens the door and gestures for the others to get out.

They so get out.

He pulls out a proper walkie-talkie. "Hey, Sheppard. Apparently we landed at the guy's house, be there in ten."

"Don't say it. I can see the look on your face, whatever you're thinking don't say it."

"Anyway. This is what can happen if a Teleport goes wrong. A tenth of a tenth of the time, even if your destination is a place you know intimately, you can end up somewhere else. It's almost always safe, though. The only danger is trying to get to a place you've only seen once, or doesn't really exist. That's one of the reasons why I teleported to the island instead of trying to target your ship directly."

"Well, at least we didn’t end up stranded in an icy cave."

Meanwhile, on Atlantis, a jumper flies out of the central tower, and vanishes from view. 

Vigil is pretty clean... for a medieval city.

The city is circled by two concentric walls, built around a Castle sitting atop a rocky hill. There is a river flowing just outside the external walls, and that interrupts them to reach the city's harbor.

"I've had Sir Muris Send ahead while you were preparing, they're expecting us. We're going to meet at the Adventurer's Guild, mostly to avoid attracting too much attention for now. If you'll follow me."

It’s much better than what they're used to in Pegasus, probably because people here don’t get Culled every century or so. 

They follow. 

The Adventurer's Guild stands close to the walls in the northern part of the city. They enter and are accompanied to a discreet room to the back. Once the door opens they see... a dark and foggy mass.

Sana passes through the threshold and disappears.

Next to the door, there is a person that appears to be looking distractedly at them while reading a small book.

He's wearing a leather coat and a black wide brimmed hat, and has a nunchaku hanging from his belt.

"If you could wait six moments, I would be glad to you."

He speaks with a thick accent.

"Don, they're not going to be secretly evil cultists, they're way too nice for that."

He gestures for them to wait.

Sana, why did you just walk ahead. I don't speak their language. Ugh.

They wait. 

Neutral Good. 

Chaotic Good

Chaotic Neutral

Lawful Neutral

"All in order." He points at Woolsey. "He's Lawful."

"Good day." He gets back to reading.

Well, that's good to know. As soon as he enters the room he whispers in Sana's hear "Their commander is Lawful. Don didn't specify which Lawful."

Which means he's neither Good nor Evil. Not surprising for a leader, it's hard to remain Good while ruling a nation.

As soon as everyone is in the room she will address their guests "To have everyone speak the same language the simplest option is for me to give you access to Taldane. To do that I need to touch each of you. The spell is completely harmless and lasts almost two hours if I cast it. Alternatively, we can cast a different spell on our delegation, but it's more expensive. It would be worth it, to be clear, but among allies it's always best to use trust built to be more efficient with resources."

"Understood."

"I'm sure Jackson'd wish he was here, huh."

She casts Speak Local Language for the four of them, giving them Taldane. They'll have a mild Chelish accent.

Having done so she'll switch to speaking in Taldane.

"So, presentations. These are Lady Veena Heliu, Precentor Martial for Magic, and Sir Keyron Saiville, Precentor Martial for Scouting. The five Precentors Martials are responsible for military affairs, and have ultimate authority under the guidance of the Lord Watcher."

"May She smile upon our meeting."

"Always happy to meet new and interesting people."

"And, for the Atlantis Expedition, Mr. Richard Woolsey - their leader, Lieutenant Colonel - it's a military grade - John Sheppard, Mr. Rodney McKay - their chief Artificer from what I could intuit, and Mr. Ronon Dex." - their Barbarian, she doesn't say.

"It's a pleasure to meet you. We look forward to establishing peaceful contact and trade relations with the peoples of this planet, even though our arrival was... less than orderly."

"Descending from the sky in a glowing sphere of fire is poetic, really. How did you survive that?"

"Atlantis is a technological marvel, and was designed to handle such things, though we were cutting it somewhat close."

"Technology... can't say I'm familiar with it. I know some people near Numeria are using that, but it seems even more dangerous that magic."

"I can't see any magic items on you, that's surprising."

"Um, a..."

"We may not be entirely familiar with the 'magic' phenomenon, perhaps the traslation is imperfect? A significant portion of technology we utilize could reasonably be called magic, though what we have observed here we aren't familiar with."

"You aren't familiar with magic. Uh. Where do you come from? Must be such a weird place, with no clerics nor wiz... arcane casters."

"We can't say for sure where our home is relative to here, we aren't exactly sure what happened to bring us to this place. We have visited many places, and it's not uncommon for us to see something we are not familiar with, nor for us to seem weird to people."

"What are your intentions now that you're here?"

"Our first priority is to ensure security of Atlantis, which includes establishing contact and trade relations with local parties. We would work on re-establishing contact with our home. Theoretically, our standing objective is to get to the destination we were heading for before the accident, but it's unlikely to be feasable in the short term. We aren't currently informed enough about the situation on this planet to have any specific further priorities, though we are interested in learning more."

"Well, for trade relationships you definitely want to talk to the Abadarians, it's their specialization. We - as a country - are focused on dealing with several existential-threats-to-the-world*, and don't have much in the way of trade. In fact, one option you may find interesting would be to formally join us and our allies against one of those threats to enjoy the protections that apply to all the treaty signatories."

* a two syllable word in Taldane

"We would appreciate introductions to relevant parties. We would certainly need to know more about the nature of the threat before formally joining any alliances, and can't guarantee our continued presence."

"I'll make sure to arrange a meeting with Fiducia Siddin after we're done chatting, she'll be delighted to trade with you. Your continued presence wouldn't need to be guaranteed if you don't join the Treaty as a nation but as adventurers. Individuals are free to leave the front, as long as they do it outside of combat or emergency situations. Talking about the threat then..."

"The Worldwound is a place where the border between the Material Plane and the Abyss is weakened, and demons can freely enter our world and threaten our existence. A Treaty was formed between nearby nations to oppose their encroachment." And - ideally - to close it for good, but that hope looks further and further away the more time passes. "For what concerns adventurers, the rules are pretty simple. As long as you are fighting at the Worldwound, you get the protection of the Treaty. This protection is - broadly speaking - not being attacked by any of the signatories or their soldiers, and getting a stay on prosecution for crimes committed before joining the fight."

"As you can imagine, the actual Treaty is more complicated, taking care to painstakingly define words and enumerate all edge cases." One of the signatories is Cheliax, after all. "But as long as you could be reasonably construed as 'fighting at the Worldwound' - and that explicitly includes providing logistics, if you don't feel like swords or bows would be the best use of your skills, then you would be safe."

"We can likely provide logistics support for defensive action. Would we be able to have the entirety of Atlantis under this protection?"

"Atlantis would be the name of your... vessel? Getting the people protected would be easy, if they're either working logistics or supporting people doing that it counts. As an example, a person cooking for someone working on logistics is also covered, and so on. Getting the vessel itself covered should be fine, but signing as a nation might be useful to be absolutely sure. Are you a nation?"

"We are an expedition, backed by a committee of nations on our home planet. I would like to review the details of the agreement at some point, but we are provisionally on board for providing logistical support in defensive situations, if that helps with the safety of Atlantis and our people."

A cloacked jumper hovers a few kilometers above Vigil, over Sheppard's locator last known position.

"Sheppard, this is Lorne. I'm above your last known position, but can't detect the beacon anymore. Holding steady. Over."

Sheppard (and the rest of his team) hear it in their earpiece.

Whatever they have darknening the room from outside probably also jammed their beacon? Sheppard doesn't raise it right now, things seem to be going well. 

"It would protect you. The Worldwound treaty is one of the few things we can trust Cheliax on." She pronounces the word like she's trying to spit it out.

Uh, something happened. They all subtly reacted, acting mildly distracted at the same time.

Do they look worried? Did their attitude shift?

Neither, apparently, and Keyron thinks he should be able to tell from Ronon or Rodney, but they seem unworried by whatever happened.

He sends through the Telepathic Bond :worry-not*. Veena, did you notice any magic a moment ago?:

* do not show an outward reaction, I expect the following to not be something that needs worrying about

:nope:

"Can you tell us about other sources of trouble we should be aware of? The people of this planet continue to surprise us, and I fear that we are missing quite a lot of important information, here."

"The main one I'm thinking about is Cheliax. It's a country south of here and while - fortunately for us - they are part of the Worldwound defense, they are in fact Lawful Evil and wholly aligned with the Lord of Hell. I doubt Geb is going to bother with interfering, he hasn't been active in a while."