"That's what we're going for," Kat nods. "it's not the only thing we do, but it's what we'd like to be known for."

"How long are you envisioning me operating out of here? It's not exactly a distribution warehouse."

"As long as you'd like; it won't hurt anything for us to keep a room for you even if you aren't using it for much."

    "I expect the first thing to do is figure out where you should be, and this is as good a place as any to stay while we're doing that; I can teleport you wherever you'd like to go."

"Makes sense. How much of a low profile should I be keeping? No shuttling across the world if Raafi runs out of teleports?"

"You could make a shuttle look like a gnomish invention, I bet. It'd still get peoples' attention, but it wouldn't be an immediate disaster. You probably shouldn't have more than two or three things that you're trying to pass off that way, though."

"The computer's pretty essential, I'll try to avoid needing to use the rest of my allotment so I'm not pushing it too hard if I need something unexpectedly. I have ideal-case plans for in what order to roll out medical and agricultural stuff, but obviously that needs whatever layer of obfuscation that you'll know more about than me - I haven't even been able to read books from here till you loaned me the necklace - and I have been told that it will annoy the less friendly nature god to wipe out malarial mosquitoes. Also you might have a differently shaped ecosystem than we did, we had no important niches filled exclusively with those bugs in particular but it's possible you do."

"He'd notice, yes - the name is Obad-Hai, that's safe enough to say here." He gets out a notebook to start writing things down. "You should be able to do some things without getting too much of his attention, I'm just not sure what, we can visit some of Ehlonna's druids to ask about it. Medicine and agriculture can go through Pelor's church, maybe with a special effort to get it to the dwarves faster than they otherwise would - what are we distributing, exactly?"

"- aside, don't dwarves live underground? How do they do agriculture? Do they do it topside, have magic lights..."

"They have specialized crops, mostly mushrooms. I think they're partly dependent on imports, too."

"I can give them spores from interesting cultivars but the people of Revelation do not use mushrooms as a major calorie source so I will be less helpful to them than to people who normally work in plants."

"That's fine. I suggested focusing on them because they're slow to adopt new things, so if we want to see changes it's better not to wait to start, but it won't bother them to be left alone for the time being."

"They'll at least benefit from food getting cheaper for their trading partners."

"Mmhmm. And everything else, too. - I should probably find us a scholar who knows about the underdark to talk to at some point, dwarves aren't the only people down there."

"Yeah, you have, like, hundreds of kinds of people, right? But humans will be by far the easiest interface because that's what we've got back home, and it's a little awkward to prioritize them but still more efficient to do so on net."

"Most other species do all right with things designed for humans, if they're sized for it, and most of them are. I think we'll be okay."

"And I can miniaturize most things no problem. Or enlarge them if you have giants."

"We do, a few kinds. Most of them don't have much to do with humans - the especially tall people with the rocky skin you might occasionally see are goliaths, not giants, true giants don't fit in human buildings."

"I will have to start an index." He pulls his computer off his belt loop and does this.

Raafi produces and offers another notebook. "This should be close to comprehensive on aboveground species on this continent."

"Ooh, thanks." He will find somewhere nice to sit and copy all that into his computer so he'll be able to search it and not lose the ability to read it if he must hand back the necklace.

There are lots of species: the notebook covers both surface and underground types, with identifying drawings and notes, sometimes as brief as 'hostile' or 'evil' or 'uncivilized' or 'solitary' but usually at least a sentence or two describing their most interesting features and advising the reader on how to approach them. Humans are simply noted as 'variable', while the other four common species get a few pages each on the nuances of their cultures - how to identify and address high-ranking elves, a quick and dirty primer on reading dwarves' beard braids to determine their gender, profession, and clan, a list of prominent halfling clans and what each is known for, and tips for navigating gnomes' odd customs around asking questions and sharing information.

"You probably don't wanna translate this and put it on the internet, not that your PR guys would have let you," Cam says. "Gnomes sound, uh, interesting in controlled doses."

"I like them, but they're definitely not to everyone's tastes, yes."

"Is this book accurate on how to interact with them, would you say - what are you supposed to say when it's in fact a bad time to explain?"

"It's been a while since I've read that - it's probably missing some nuance? You can definitely tell them that it's a bad time if it is, just expect them to take you at your word."