A human appears.  He's unusually tall for his species, at over 7 feet tall.  His clothing is leather and durable cloth, finely made with embossed details but more worn down from use than custom-fitted clothing of that quality is usually allowed to get.

He stumbles and backs up, moving to a defensive posture.  

There is an eclectic collection of sixteen beings. Mostly humanoids, but there is a large bird and a equine with a single pearly horn.

"We are terribly sorry for bringing you here. We mean you no harm. Do you have any pressing needs or anything to address besides clarifications of what is going on? Something urgent back home?" This is spoken by an eleven feet tall four-armed humanoid.

"Nothing urgent, no.  Where am I?"

"You've been transported to the moon of Actana. In another world."

He's still confused.  Perhaps that hadn't been the right question to ask.

"Why did you bring me here?"

"Our world has just went through a catastrophic that killed most people and left the place inhabitable. We are trying to find a place to go. We tried other alternatives, but we currently we have decided to resort to bring people from other worlds and interview them for the possibility of taking refugees."

"Sorry to hear about that."

"What sort of catastrophe?  Is it the kind that's likely to reoccur or follow you?"  Or are they dangerous to Tle themselves, though he can't exactly ask them that.  They don't look hostile, but they probably wouldn't even if they were.  

"The entirety of the thing developed through a long extended period-"

"Some so-called-Gods wanted to commit suicide and drained the life and light out of the world. And created some monsters. We don't think the dead gods will follow us. Because, they are dead." Says the red-orange bird.

"Well, yes. That."

Huh.  He considers that.  

"Are you looking for societies to integrate with, or wilderness?"

"Either. Real factor is if it can take a few thousand people for at least the next six months or so. Wilderness, or unclaimed land has some long term benefits. But having a place to put people and expect them to survive in the near future is more important."

"Thousand?  When the refugees from MuurKari showed up on Tle there were a hundred million."  He blurts that out without thinking, the surprise causing him to forget his hesitation with speaking.  He'd been expecting something more of that size.  

"We have three thousand on the moon, a few thousands more in the cities in the surface, maybe that would reach millions, but most of our population did die, Sir... I don't think we have properly introduced ourselves. I am Pherikles."

"I'm Raen'Vine, Champion of Diamondeye."

"Diamondeye? Do you have further questions?"

"She's the God of Preservation.  

"I'll probably think of a dozen questions as soon as I say no, but there isn't anything vital."  

"Understood. You're currently being held inside there." He points to an octagonal shape around him with his right upper-most arm. "Do you mind if take a look at you to be sure you are not sick or something so we can let you out and talk somewhere more comfortable?"

That completely baffles Raen'Vine for the few seconds it takes for him to realize that if they don't know his name they probably don't know his mage-power either.  

"Go ahead."

An individual steps forward and squints at Raen. Anything unusual about his biology? Is he carrying a plague? Poison?

There is a lot unusual about his biology.  

The most obvious thing is that his heart has at some point been replaced with a crystal of similar size.  It moves the blood around it via magic in a smooth heartbeat-less way.  There are also diamond cabochons embedded under his skin in hard-to-notice locations.  Presumably those are also doing something, though they're not active at the moment.  A kangaroo-like pouch holding various objects is hidden in his torso.

Beyond that, he's a shapeshifter who has optimized his body for survival and convenience in hundreds of ways through the centuries.  Stronger bones, stronger skin.  The spine redesigned to be less terrible.  Eyes which can see into infrared, ultraviolet, and the planet's magnetic field.  Changes to the neck which make him harder to decapitate or strangle while still retaining most of the neck's natural motion range.  Entire systems, like the sinus cavities, look like they've been taken apart and rebuilt intelligently at some point.

There are a number of things that possibly look worrying, but are presumably intentional given the rest.  Nothing that is dangerous to him, or to anyone around him, at least.  He is as healthy as it is possible to be.  

Leon stares, and there is something about his face that seems to almost be admiring the work.

"He has a lot of changes," Leon says awe. "Apparently for survival and I can't see anything that stands out as dangerous for us. He is harder to hurt. I also notice an absence of a heart and things under his skin."

"I'm a mage.  The process to become a mage involves tearing out the heart and replacing it with a special type of crystal.  My mage-power is shapeshifting and healing.  The other crystals under my skin are chargestones - reservoirs for extra power."

"I see. Do you have other capabilities?"

"Mages only have a single power each, though mine is unusually versatile.  I can heal or shapeshift people I know well enough, or plants or animals I've been taking care of for a while.  I've made a number of medicinal plants in the past, and vaccines.  They aren't inherent, but I also have magical items that let me blend into crowds and be immune to mind-altering magics when worn."

"Oh, okay. That sounds interesting."

Another person speaks with scaly skin. "For whatever what is worth, can we get your word that you're not planning to use those powers maliciously against us?"

He considers possible wordings, and whether he should add a self-defense clause.  Realistically, however, there isn't anything he can do self-defense-wise with his magic that would be better than punching.

"I swear that I have no intentions of using magic maliciously against you."

Pherikles turns to the scale-skin person who nods.

"Let him go." Orders with a shrug.

The air shimmers with an effect similar to glass. Except without the part where there is a solid object.

"You can leave the circle now. Follow me?"

Yeah, he follows.

He leads Raen out of the room and across a corridor and then to another room with a large window and some cushions.

The windows show a lush green garden, gray mountains and a dark planet above them all.

Contrary to his earlier statement about likely having questions, he hasn't actually thought of any.  He takes a look out of the window, then finds a good place to sit.

"You have questions about Tle?"

"Yes, primarily, if it can take a few thousand refugees. How safe it is. How resourceful it is. Local dangers. And so on."

"A few thousand refugees is no problem.  Most of the land is empty, especially the temperate regions.  Dryad Groves can also hold a lot more people than they do, though you'd have to take it up with them - most of them follow Diamondeye to some extent but I don't have any actual authority over them.  

"Safety and dangers... I don't have anything to compare it with.  People aren't afraid to leave their homes, and it's safer than its ever been in the 2000 years I've been alive.  The surface at least doesn't have any wars, though I don't know much about the merfolk.  There are tornadoes, earthquakes, hurricanes, and so on in certain places.  Back before the planet was as empty as it was, people still lived there and just built strong enough to weather them or rebuilt a few houses now and then.

"The biggest disasters in our history was 400 years ago.  There used to be a magic called wizardry, which gave the users a small amount of mana constantly over time, then let them do near-arbitrary things with it.  A group figured out an exploit that let them have as much mana as they wanted, and they tried a ritual to kill a particular subgroup of humans who had pale hair instead of dark.  Instead, the magic misfired and killed all human women.  Humanity survives through throwbacks from half-human hybrids, but we're very much the minority compared to the other three species now.  Wizardry itself was destroyed, as were several other magic systems, and possibly a number of the gods."

Pherikles starts taking notes. "We might have more survivors, but I don't think that the survivors reach a hundred thousand even if I try to be extremely optimistic about it. Those sound like relatively normal dangers."

"Are humans and non-human relations good then? No major war or strife that might force outsiders to take sides?"

"Merfolk traditionally haven't gotten along with humans.  Lisship Ocean in particular sinks any boats they see.  Beyond that there hasn't been many ways to interact, since they can't go on land.  Most of the hostility is due to the gods declaring that humans and merfolk aren't allowed to interact, and merfolk fighting back against actions they see as humans invading their territory.  I don't know the reason for the ban, and I've shapeshifted and lived among them before."

"Solon are hard to live in the same city as, but are good neighbors for trade.  They're very... polite?  But also exacting.  Their society has a lot of rules and taboos, and harsh penalties for breaking them.  Solon are descended from the refugees that came from MuurKari 400 years ago.  They've integrated their half-human hybrids and throwbacks into a caste-like system.  The throwbacks call themselves 'striders' and choose to consider themselves as a caste of solon rather than human, and do creche management.  They claim all tropical freshwater swamps and sufficiently wet rainforest.

"The first dryads were found and raised by the last humans, and revere them.  Much of their current resources are spent sending people out on archaeological digs, to preserve as much of the past as they can.  When a dryad gets too big to keep moving around, they return to a Grove and graft themselves to a side to become a wall of a building or something, and join the large hivemind that rules the area.  Some humans live there, if they're willing to follow the Grove's rule and don't mind the lack of privacy from the frame of their house being sapient.  I suspect they'll be very interested in taking in refugees and providing support."

"Do you expect merfolk to have a problem with nonhumans? We have a set of people that are amphibious or just aquatic. What do Solons and Dryads look like?

"I wouldn't know.  Probably depends on whether they have humanish legs or not, though it'd also vary from country to country.

"Solon are 9 foot tall bipeds with 3 sets of tentacles where a human's arms would be.  Long pointy ears, external strands of gills instead of hair.  Hermaphroditic - defaulting to male but switching to female briefly every few years to lay eggs.  Half solon have 1 set of arms and 1 set of tentacles, and are only about as tall as I am."  He sounds mildly put out that everyone has wound up as-tall-or-taller than him.  7'5" used to be tall.  

"Dryads look like they're made of wood, but it's a flexible unsupported muscle system.  Like octopus, if you have those?  They build artificial chassis in the shape of human women which they fit themselves into and operate as if it's a skeletal system and they're the muscles.  They have leaves, which they can see out of via some kind of inherent magic, and also photosynthesize with.  A young dryad is 4 or 5 feet tall, and keep rebuilding or replacing chassis when they outgrow them.  The tallest are about 15 feet tall.  Nearly all take humanoid shapes, but there are a few who build animal chassis or grow themselves into cars."

Interesting. "Do the chassis look human like or are they just human shaped? What are they made out of?"

"Human-shaped.  They're made of rigid pieces with joints, and have lots of gaps for the leaves to poke through for light.  Their branches aren't fine enough to handle facial expressions.  Metal, plastic, wood, porcelain, leather, glass, bone... each chassis is considered an individual artwork, and they try to make them each unique."

Nod. "Are those all the intelligent species you know of? Or just the relevant ones? We have a total of nine kinds of people, not counting hybrids and unique kinds."

"I remember there being a species in The Vault - an underground world where Diamondeye collects species which have died out elsewhere.  I don't remember anything about them other than that they were small.  The gods implied there are people on the moons of Netarin.  Netarin being the third planet in our system, after MuurKari and Tle.  If there are, they probably wouldn't be the species we know of.  We don't have any way of checking.

"Human, merfolk, solon, and dryads are the only mortal species on Tle's surface."

Pherikles nods. "On our side we have humans - given the translation there shouldn't be major differences - plus eight magical species, spirits, dragons, thunderbird, phoenixes, unicorns, sea serpents, faen and giants. The last two are humanoid and natively reproduce with humans, plus sea serpents and dragons sometimes have shapeshifting and that lets them reproduce with more things. I am myself a part-dragon part-giant."

"We have a non-sapient group of animals called dragons.  Or your translator is translating it as dragon."  It hadn't occurred to him to wonder about the language before.  

Pherikles gets a distant look. "Oh, I see. The ambient translation is weak enough that it will get near-ish concepts even if there are major divergences like that. I have a better version," he explains "that lets me poke at things if I actively go look for them. Our dragons are very much people, they are just natively shaped like winged reptiles often too big to fit a room like this."

"I spent a while shapeshifted as one of the larger varieties before.  Ours are reptilian and winged, but not much larger than an elephant."  He glances around the room, judging the size.  "Dragon monsters can be building-sized, and were one of the more common types back when the gods would have children more often."

Can he notice the translation effect if he listens for it?  

"Dragons and part dragons never stop growing. Though they do eventually die of old age."

He can't notice anything particular about the translation effect. Pherikles himself pokes at it. "With 'monsters' you mean half-god animals?"

"Yes.  They're sentient.  Whether or not their friendly depends on their upbringing."  Gods are not very parental to their offspring.

Pherikles nods. And makes a face. "Gods or the entities that called themselves such didn't do that. But some shapeshifters I mentioned sometimes do... and sometimes the Faen have animal parts and are... capable." He clearly doesn't like the topic. "We might be able to reach the other planets and other moons." He says mostly to change the topic.

"That could be interesting.  We have information about MuurKari brought down from the refugees, but it would be nice to get into contact with the ones from the Light Islands that didn't go out.  And see the Netarin Moons."

"MuurKari is airless on the surface, but has an air-filled cave system underground.  To provide light to keep plants alive, the gods planted magic trees in the underground lakes.  The leaves give off purple light and constantly drip water down as rain.  Some of them died, when the Wizardry Disaster disrupted magic, but some are still around."

"Sounds like an interesting project for the future. We can also access other worlds, we just have not refined the process yet. Which is why resorted to taking people like we did to you. I understand that you're powerful but how much political authority do you have? If any?"

"Nothing political.  Being Champion means I have control over Diamondeye's religion outside of The Vault, but we don't run any theocracies."

"I see. Are you capable of doing introductions in case we need those?"

"I am."

Pherikles can't really complain about people being laconic. "Suggestions who we should start with? Or do you think settling in the wilderness might be acceptable?"

"Contacting some Groves first would be a good idea in either case.  They'll have maps, and can help you pick out a spot with decent weather and no important ruins nearby."

He considers the different Groves.  He's never tried to compare them before.  "Kor Grove is the largest."

Nod. Thoughtful pause. "Do you have any... expectations of possible ways things could go wrong if we went ahead and tried to get settled on your world?"

"Groups might start looting ruins and damage thing the dryads wanted to keep preserved.  Possibly cultural differences will cause issues, depending on what the different taboos and traditions are.  Someone might try to cut down a Grove?  Unlikely, given that they don't look like normal forests and will talk to anyone who hears them, but it might happen if you can cut down trees from a distance with magic."

"I am not going to say we don't have people stupid enough to do that. But I think a warning on the topic should be enough. We do have people that can cut down trees from a distance, but how much of a distance are we talking about?"

"Far enough that their eyesight can't see the difference?  The biggest risk of this would be next to roads - Groves are very obvious, with masonry and normal walls between trunks, but they've been sending out strands of trees along roads to try and connect the Groves together.  They'd also be worried about fire, but they keep themselves well-watered and have emergency measures in place."

"Fire sounds like a greater danger than various people cutting people from a distance - they ever exist but there is no reason not to scout the area first. Sometimes people use fire to clear terrain and I guess some of the fire-producings beings like myself could be reckless with it. Not that I am reckless." He still makes a note of it. "Backtracking to the topic of looting ruins? Are they known to have a lot of things of value to loot? Dragons are known to get hoardy, but we have been considering isolating those ones."

"The dryads prize them for cultural reasons more than anything.  There are presumably precious metals and gems in places like castles and manors.  Maybe a few orich-artifacts, but places with known high concentrations of those have already been picked over."

"Cultural reasons still have some value, but granted. I am not sure how to start on cultural taboos. You're mentioned the thing with Solon's punishments being harsh." He pauses to think. "Do the cultures in your world have gender? Or something similar? Nearly all species that form large societies have some distinction that's largely based on physical sex. Though giants are nominally more flexible on that."

"Solon have a strong sense of what is 'Proper' that includes a lot of arbitrary taboos, and that the thing that separates people from animals is that People can be Proper.  Anyone who can't are either sent to a creche until they can, or butchered for their meat.  Children need to live in a creche until they learn, usually getting out when they're adult-sized.  They're... hmm.  It's hard to describe.  There's a reason I haven't been suggesting asking them to take you in.  They're far less exacting of people who don't live in their territory, and will probably trade with you just fine, though.

"Merfolk have a strong concept of gender.  How that's expressed varies from culture to culture.  Usually the men and women are separated into groups that have limited interactions with each other, sometimes expected to live in different towns for parts of their lives or exit their dwellings from different entrances on opposite streets, and often doing different jobs.

"It was historically rare in humans to have anything other than slightly different fashions or maybe some minor religious obligations for gender.  It's more common now, since most of the fishfolk who created the throwbacks were from the rare places where humans and merfolk intermingled.  That, and the focus on repopulation.  Many women take jobs that let them carry around unweaned babies.  They aren't as bad as merfolk about it.

"Dryads and solon don't have physical sexes.  Dryads all seem to be women, but I'm not sure what that means without another gender to contrast it with.  The way solon divide themselves between full solon, half-solon and strider is kind of gender-like? 

He makes a flat face at 'butchered for their meat'. But does not comment.

"Okay. That is surprisingly tame for humans, specially given the repopulation effort. It's very common  for gender norms in Actana to manifest with some variation of a gender being superior to the other. Men for humans. Women for Faen. Giants have male and female roles and believe that one can earn the male role or step down to the female role. People that don't fit have varied degrees of marginalization. And of course there are exceptions. One of the giants city-states was founded partially on the principle that gender roles should be optional."

He doesn't like the idea of some people being considered inherently superior.

"Fishfolk and those with merfolk-origin hair colors would sometimes be treated as lesser and banned from owning property or voting in places, especially right before the Wizardry Disaster.  And many places had some concept of slavery or serfdom.  Both practices have been thoroughly stamped out."

"We... also have those. Slavery, serfdom, and various discriminatory law." Sigh. "I don't actually approve of them, mind you. I would gladly see them gone."

"Hm.  Maybe it'll help to encourage as many people to live in Groves as possible, for a while, instead of starting city building projects right away."

"I mean, if there was ever an excuse for revise laws the end of the world sure sounds like it. What do you do instead of slavery? ...The hardest part of getting rid of slavery is figuring other criminal punishments to replace them."

"Fines, removing body parts, prison, execution.  Supposedly, prisons are better at rehabilitation because they can focus on that instead of productivity.  The Groves have statistics."

Pherikles nods. "Do you don't have concerns with food? For the prisoners that is. We have prisons, but they just end up being slavery with extra walls."

"Humans had that problem too, when it was just us.  At least so far the Groves seem decent.  Psychologically, they're very, hmm, 'hurting others hurts you'.  Literally in their case - all dryads eventually merge into Groves.  They're also more technologically advanced than humans ever were.  A single machine can weave enough cloth to make clothes for a city, and a farm machine can till or harvest an entire field alone in a day with two people.  Back before the Disaster nine in ten humans had to grow food for there to be enough."

He blinks. "That's amazing. How do they do it? Is it something that can be shared or requires on their dryad-ness?"

"The technology or merging into Groves?  The Groves thing is biology.  The technology is just metal in complicated shapes as far as I know."

"The technology. And it sounds like it could really help us even if we decide to go to another world."

"You can ask them about it.  I never did get around to looking into technology, and they come out with new things now and then."

"Fair, fair." He looks considerably more hopeful than before. He checks his notes. "What other things they can do with technology?"

"The next big thing is apparently machines that do math.  The dryads are really excited about those, and have been putting a lot of resources into building better ones.  I'm not sure why, though.  It doesn't sound especially useful, but maybe they're doing more math than I think they are.  

"For other things, uh.  Manufacturing most items en masse.  Transportation without needing horses or sails, or through the air itself in airplanes.  They have a couple of machines they managed to get beyond the atmosphere and into orbit of the planet - they seem to be for looking at the stars without the atmosphere in the way?  New materials like plastic that are better than glass or metal at certain things.  Machines that keep food or medicines inside cold.  Phones, that let people talk from miles away as long as both are connected to a web of copper wires that have been placed down.  Cameras that catch pictures or sequences-of-pictures that can be played back later."  He tries to think of more examples.  

More note taking. Pherikles is vaguely aware that he is imagining all those things wrong. "Okay.... Just half of these would cause some people I know to demand open contact with your world. I can't really disagree with them." He lightly taps his graphite stick on his notes. "We probably should figure out more potential cultural divergences and ways which we can work around them."

"What level of clothing do you expect people to wear?  Humans and Solon need to wear clothing over all genital areas and the butt.  Often the entire torso is covered, but rarely the limbs - we're still living very close to the equator for the most part.  Dryads consider all clothing to be reflections of the person wearing it, and hate uniforms.  Our clothing stores either sell raw bolts of cloth, or simple things meant for modification along with racks of ribbon and dye and beads, or have tailors for hire.  Uh, changing clothing in public is considered very strange, even if its just a shirt and the skirt stays on."

"I think that varies a bit per culture and per species. Humanoids like our humans, giants and sufficiently human-shaped faen have similar taboos. With breasts also being covered when present, but with the torso allowed to be bare when they are absent. But we also have non-humanoid people, and we not even among ourselves we are sure what the rule should be with those. Thunderbirds and Phoenixes in particular really dislike clothing. Some people have internal genitalia, and I have met some that find the idea of covering their slits to be ridiculous. ...I am personally would make clothing entirely optional, but I have bigger concerns."

"Monsters normally didn't wear clothes, other than sometimes saddles.  I'd expect that to transfer over to other non-humanoid people.  Merfolk have nearly-unnoticeable genitals, and don't wear clothing over them.  I'm less sure about how the surface will handle that.  Oh, and Groves don't cover their flowers.  Those should probably count, now that I think about it, but no one considers them in the same category as animal-based species."

"How do you handle dating and marriages?  That's always been a touchy subject between different human societies, in Tle's past."

"Ah, humans and Giants have the problem where women have fewer rights. This often means that virginity and youth are prized and that marriages are decided for the women. Often by the family's patriarchs, but some cultures have this being exclusively a female thing. Some Giants' city-states have laws that do better but there might be still some social backlash from your relatives. Faen do somewhat better at sexual freedom and marriage is the woman's decision to initiate and the other part may refuse. The species without civilizations of their own tend to have it be an entire interpersonal affair as far I can tell. Of course, there is variance. The city-state that disregards gender as a concept and at least one other have sexual freedom and experience as a major point of pride regardless of gender. The recent infertility crisis had its influences."

"Humans do have a strong preferences for being exclusive while married or dating, but no demands of virginity from before the current partner in particular.  Arranged marriages, with varying levels of coercion, were historically done in human cultures but have mostly fallen away.  Solon don't feel the same romance that humans do, but do have 2 other ones.  None are sexual, and they don't have marriage - in fact 2 of their 3 pairings are explicitly designed to break off within a year.  Getting someone who's never had a partner is, if anything, a drawback to them.  Dryads are asexual and aromantic.  Merfolk - as a general rule they spend their short fertile periods in travelling pods promiscuously hooking up with pods of the opposite sex, then settle down in pairs-or-webs once they move to a both-genders city.  Out of everyone, merfolk are the most varied."

"Exclusivity is also a thing, but reinforcement varies. I take Dryads grow from seeds? What are Solon's pairings like?"

"Seeds or cuttings.  Cuttings have the advantage of getting some initial personality traits chosen by the Grove, depending on what memories they copy into the branch before removal, but they have at least half of the dryads born from seeds to ensure genetic diversity.  

"They call their romances by metal-based names.  Copper is what they call ours, and that they can't feel.  Gold romance is rivalry-based, expected to last a lifetime, and usually the one they share a room with.  Silver is about one party taking care of the other or teaching the other something, and is the one that 'tarnishes' after a time.  Each person expected to 'silver' and 'be silvered' to one person each.  Apprenticeships are probably the closest equivalent to an official marriage they have."  

Huh. "Why the gold romance shares a room?"

"I'm not sure.  I never got involved romantically with solon."

"Fair enough, and not entirely a problem. I suppose." Pause. "Did I offer you water or food? I am sorry for my lack of manners, on top of the kidnapping."

"If you did I forgot.  I suppose I could eat, if you're out of questions for the moment.  And I don't mind, this is far more interesting and important than wandering around in the forest."

"I wanted to take a moment to update the others. I will call someone to make you a meal and then talk to the others. If that's okay."

And assuming that is, Pherikles calls a young woman with horns and goat-like legs. She asks what "Lord" Raen would want to eat.

"Pretty much anything that isn't fire-charred game would be good," he says, then considers how different the cultures might be.  "Or anything still alive, or containing mind-altering substances including caffeine."

He debates for a moment whether to bother, then says, "The way ancient Setebran names work, 'Raen' is a descriptive prefix, and 'Vine' is my core name.  They're normally spoken together."

The young woman slowly nods.

"When I said make you a meal, I meant that she can conjure you one. Obviously, there is a limit to the gift or we wouldn't have a problem feeding people, but our hospitality extends to making you any treats you want."

"Does the mundane preparation time not matter?  If not, I guess I should be asking for, hmm.  Merengue?"

"It does not," Pherikles says.

The young woman raised hand starts glowing, her fingers moving in a pattern that appears to be weaving the threads of light she is producing. Then a meregue appears, alongside some leaves for napkin, she offers that one for Raen'vine and sets about to make some more.

"Thank you," he says, taking the merengue.  He watches the light, curious, while he tastes the magically-conjured food. 

Once it's dissolved enough to count as 'him' for his magical purposes, does it seem to be made of normal molecules?  He turns on his magic for just a moment to check, able to sense his own physical form while its active.  

His internal sense is... very confused about what this is made of, it appears to be made of... just... about anything food could be? Or at least the bits that are in him seem almost to adapt to whatever that bit of himself needs the most.

That's a bit alarming, but doesn't seem to be hurting him.  Curious, he closes his eyes to better focus on the magic, watching as the ...something... decides what it needs to be.  It's slightly dizzying to sense, though nowhere near as bad as being under a potion effect.  This leaves him standing with a confused and listening expression for longer than he'd expected to be using his mage-power for.  

Pherikles leaves him be if that's all. He will be provided more food as requested.

Pherikles is gone for ten minutes or so.

The power-use half-trance is ended after about a minute.  He'll ask for a few other small things that come to mind, but is used to magic with very limited use and doesn't want to spend all of their resources on nutrition he isn't especially in need of compared to others.  He thanks the woman again for her service, then spends the rest of the time nibbling at the rest of the snack foods contemplatively.  

And Pherikles promptly returns. "Is everything alright? Do you mind if we resume things now?"

"Everything's fine.  You have more questions?"  

"Kinda, people were wondering if we should summon someone else from your world and if you have any recommendations. Alternatively, if or when we should send someone there. And where to send them."

"That sounds like a good idea.  Either of those ideas.  As I mentioned before, Dryads are probably the best group to get into contact with.  Sending some people to near a Grove or summoning a dryad both would be good ideas.  The Kor Grove is... if the Groves can be said to have a leader among them it's probably that one.  I can't think of any individual dryads I'd recommend bringing, though in general if you can aim for a taller one you'll get one with more experience."

"We might not have enough finesse to get a dryad that is not immobile. ...Maybe we could send someone and summon another human? Mostly to be safe."

"That makes sense.  Sending people sounds like the best strategy, of those options, assuming that you can aim sending people better."

He nods. "We are not entirely sure we wouldn't uproot a Dryad with it. And in general sounds more friendly. Would rather stay or go along?"

He considers it.  This place does sound fascinating, but it's also dangerous and it doesn't sound like they can spare the resources.  "I'll go along.  Will you be able to bring me along to near Kor Grove, or would I get sent back out into the middle of nowhere where I was pulled here from?"

"We should be able to at least land near it if you can provide some unique identifiers, or try a few times."

"Hmm.  In addition to being the largest Grove, he largest artificial waterway in the world is a canal cutting across the Kor Isthmus that runs beside it.  They have a large number of museums and archives, but that's true of any grove..."

"Any other geographical features? Climate? Notable peaks?"

"Tropical, wet.  Outside of the groves and fields is rainforest.  There are some hilly areas, but nothing with names.  The largest lake that's part of the canal is called Kiraso.  The isthmus it's on is pretty notable, the only one between 2 continents, and if you get anywhere on it it their highways and rails will make it easy to get to the grove itself."

"That should be enough, do you have recommendations regarding group size or composition? Any problem if we take non-humanoids? Or maybe we should stick to a homogenous group?"

"Anyone who is more than twenty feet tall or six feet wide will have difficulty going everywhere in the Grove, and my height is just short of some of the older human buildings' ceilings."  He gestures at the approximate sizes.  "Non-humanoid won't bother anyone.  Number of people... I'm not sure how large you were considering, but anything under twenty would be fine.  Less than half should be people brought only as bodyguards, or it'll look less like a diplomatic team and more like a small army."

"We were thinking more between four and six. Maybe two bodyguards, though, we would favor people that can take care of themselves."

"That would be fine.  How long will it take to prepare and leave?"

"Could be as short as ten minutes. The relevant people are already gearing up."

"That's convenient."  He's a bit disappointed that it isn't reasonable to look around further, but he'd rather get on with the mission.  

Presumably, they will let him do that in the future.

They the group of five or so people, which indlues Pherikles' twin and someone who approaches Vine. "Hello! Fellow shapeshifter!"

"Hello!  You're the group that'll be sent to Tle?"