Yep, looks pretty steppe-like. In the distance, a a few large buildings, each with a collection of smaller constructions, stand by the waterside. A few tall metal towers jut up from the land, incongruous with the rest of the scene.

The farmer looks through, but does not enter, the portal. He heads for town to contact the authorities. An hour or two later, several helicopters arrive on the scene and a few dozen people climb out to inspect the portal.

Nobody appears to notice their arrival. 

After spending several more minutes looking around, taking measurements, four of them step through the portal and walk towards the buildings on the other side. They consist of: a middle-aged man in a black collarless suit, two younger men in military fatigues, and an aged woman in cream-colored robes.

Upon their arrival to the nearest cluster, several people will attempt to ask them things! From context, likely a variant of “who are you” or “why are you here.” Upon realizing they speak a different language, they fetch several people who ask similar questions in other languages they will not speak.

The buildings are largely mudbrick and wood. One is notably significantly larger than the others. Several basic canvas tents are set up, with people chatting and playing cards and staring at some sort of glass tablet underneath them. Some people off to the side are playing a game involving running around and attempting to hit each other with long sticks. No children are visible.

Most people are wearing a simple tunic and pants, or a long dress. Most are shades of brown, but a few are shades of greens and reds. The clothing does not appear to correspond with gender. The cream robe and fatigues gets minimal attention, but a few people are openly staring at the the suit, until a (woman?) comes out and shoos them away.

One of the younger men speaks with the locals, attempting to learn their language through pantomime. He introduces himself as Rokaidim. The other three speak little and spend the time looking around, studying the buildings and landscape (to compare it to their side of the portal). The man in the suit speaks into a handheld radio.

The probably-an-administrator tells a few people to do some things, and brings them over to a table set up in the large building, where she introduces herself as Talu Ritula and the man (who is wearing a slightly fancier-than-average dress) as Rian Larutel. Rian writes out a series of symbols on a piece of paper, and spends some time pointing out various objects and writing down the words he gets, while Talu does something on her own glass device. After a few minutes of this, another person brings out a bowl of dried berries, and the Murlocians immediately take some to eat. The pantomime is attempted as well, but Rian and Talu both seem to have some trouble figuring out what concepts it’s trying to indicate.

The delegation follows the woman into the building, although none of them touch the food. Rokaidim focuses on learning whatever language the Murlocians are speaking, while the other members of the delegation offer the canaanite names of whatever objects Rian points to.

Sensible! Both Rian, Talu, and the food-provider look somewhat concerned, and Talu indicates the food, takes some, and makes a questioning noise. 

The man in the suit shakes his head and holds out his palm in what may look like rejection.

Talu nods, and says something to the food-provider, who hurries off and brings back a plate of sliced fish, some sort of bean-based pastry, and a bowl of nuts. Talu carefully eats a small amount of each, and makes another questioning noise.

The delegation declines all food.

After a while, a voice comes from the delegation’s radio, and (after some discussion) the third man in the delegation goes outside and walks back through the portal, returning a few minutes later with portable radio equipment. He starts making his way through the spectrum, trying to see how much radio activity there is.

The murlocians are all very concerned when they all decline food, but do stop trying new ones. Talu tries to talk to the radio in several languages, to see if their own people know any of them.

Someone does walk after him, and upon seeing the portal, freezes, blinks, swears, and starts sprinting back.

There’s a pretty high amount of radio activity! Some music, some talking, some unfamiliar signals.

Do they have signals originating in orbit?

No, nothing originating in orbit.

He continues to collect data for a while. Once he’s gotten most of what he can, he returns the equipment to the other side of the portal and heads back to report his findings.

Meanwhile, inside the building, they’re still trying to figure out how to talk to each other. Rokaidim has learned enough words to say, "mud building" and make an exaggerated face of confusion.

“…Yes?” attempts Rian. “Um, many mud and straw here. Small mud your home?”

"Rock, mix rock, wood. Small mud."

“Huh! Rock-“

His sentence is cut off as the portal-discoverer, still breathing heavily, runs in and starts rapidly speaking to those present. They freeze, blink, ask a few questions, and then Rian turns back to the delegation.

”You from other… uh. Word… From door in air?”

"Yes. Door open this morning."

“Oh! Um. That’s. More homes need to know, not just ours? Oh, is our food not your food? Er, name of your-“ he spreads him arms around, trying to indicate evething - “yes?”

Talu instantly starts rapidly tapping at a glass screen, swearing quietly to herself.

Rokaidim didn’t understand some of those words, but he can try to answer.

"We name Hadarites."

After a comment from the man in the suit, he gestures at the glass object and says, "that what?"

“Screen or tablet? For talking with other people very far away, farther than can be walked easily at all. So most homes will know that a door through air exists, and can debate about it.”

"...need more words."

Rokaidim continues trying to learn their language as fast as he can. After an hour, another man, also dressed in cream-colored robes, walks through the portal. He speaks to Rokaidim for several minutes, then to the Murlocians, asking for more words and making analogies to try to figure out how to talk about more abstract concepts. He seems to be learning the language much more rapidly than Rokaidim was. His name, should they ask, is Imenrala.

Rian’s the best they have at languages, but the tablet lets them have other more naturally talented people learn it and give them translations. Some abstract concepts generally translate better than others, or have different connotations, but the translations get much better.

They call the planet Murlocia, and themselves as a species Murlocians.

After a while longer, Imenrala knows enough of the language to try communicating some more complex ideas.

"Rian and Talu, what are your... tasks? roles? What do you do and who tells you what to do?"

Talu replies quickly.

“I’m the Home’s Administrator - I know the policies, people respect me, and I manage the supplies. I also make some choices about jobs and pay and emergencies and new buildings and whatnot - some of that is up to Council, there’s some, hm, debate on that. Generally if I suggest something, the Council agrees because I know what I’m doing and they know that, unless I really screwed something up. Rian normally gathers food-plants, but he’s the best at languages in our Home. I suppose I tell him what to do, in that if I need him to do something and ask, he will assume I have a reason and do it. I knew I wanted to be an Administrator when I was a child, and apprenticed under the former one, and then I was competent at it and became the new one when she died.”

”What are your own roles and jobs?”

"What exactly do you mean by 'Home'? It seems to refer to a settlement, but it sounds like there's more to it? How do you manage supplies? Do you manage supplies for the whole settlement?"

"Kalanit"—he points towards the robed woman—"and I are priests, Rokaidim and Paltigil"—the other man in fatigues—"are soldiers, and Alkiviad"—"is an officer. He works for the part of the government that is... probably supposed to handle portals to other worlds."

“Home refers to the large building where administration work is done, supples are stored, food is cooked and served, and the nursery is in - the types of things people can share and don’t need their own of. Generally it also refers to the surrounding buildings and land as well, though. Some places do multiple large buildings, and that gets more practical with higher populations. I keep track of the stores, make sure we’re not running out, tell people to get more of or use less of specific items if necessary (or the opposite), make trade deals, etc? For the entire Home, yes.

They make slightly confused expressions at the word “priests”, and tense significantly at the word “soldiers.”

”Is it. Customary. To bring raiders when opening diplomatic talks. For your people.”

Everyone seems pretty weirded out by Talu’s explanation of how the Homes work.

"Raider? To the best of my knowledge, the Union has done any raiding in five hundred years, at least. Soldiers would not usually attend diplomatic events, but this is not a usual diplomatic event." He talks quietly to Alkiviad for a few moments before continuing, "This group was not meant for diplomacy first, it was meant for exploration, and Alkiviad wanted to be prepared for multiple possibilities. He also says they did not bring any firearms."

They’re honestly a bit confused as to what these folks are doing, but, well, aliens! 

Talu and Rian both relax noticably, and Rian audibly sighs. Talu gets herself back under control much faster.

“Guards, then. That’s understandable. Can you clarify what a “priest” is?”

"Priests take an oath to... not make people think false things. That’s almost right, but I don’t have all the words I need. And they sometimes do jobs where having taken that oath makes them useful."

Talu blinks. “Do many of your adults… lie, about things that matter at all? Is that the word you want? Would that not mean that none could trust any of their words again? Or, are they forbidden to deceive through wordplay and omission, as well?”

"Lying is part of it, but the oath is about more than just lying. Most of the things most people say are probably not lies, but sometimes they do lie. And probably there would be more lies if priests didn’t do many of the jobs where people would benefit from lying."

“I… see.” 

“You seemed confused as to how Homes function - what do you do instead? Ah, is there a way to see if we can eat each other’s food, that you know of? You seem to have more experience with dealing with odd portals.”

"We don't have any experience, nothing like this has happened to our people before. They didn't eat your food because we don't know if we are the same... type of animal. Maybe your food is not safe for us. Probably we could get it tested, but we don't need to do that soon, we have our own food."

"In our world, most towns don't have as much communal stuff as you do. People have their own supplies, cook their own food, and usually their children live with them. They trade with each other for things too, like food sometimes. I don't know how much individual people trade with each other here."

“Huh! You seem very prepared for someone who it’s never happened to.”

“Oh, we do, mostly for luxuries and fun things, but sometimes for other stuff - if you don’t like a food and someone else does, you could trade that, or if you spend your free time making more clothes and want to trade those.”

"Who can we talk to that can speak for more people than just a Home? Are there central government people on the way here?"

“…if you want to talk to people from other Homes, you can do that over the internet? I suppose that some Administrators might be charge of multiple Homes, if their own Administrator died without a successor? Scientists and whatnot also often have a lot of authority, even if it’s not normally official. Clarify what you mean by “central government?”

"Our world has people who can speak for and make agreements for everyone on the planet. Do you not?"

"The central government is what solves coordination problems that everyone needs to coordinate on, like having a uniform legal system, distributing land fairly, taxing pollution, and funding research."

“…No, we don’t. Is there a very limited amount of land in your world, for that to be an issue? There are rules that the Administrators (vote, maybe? The word is a confusing translated) on, but legal systems are not all the same, except that they must follow those rules. I… we all voted that pollution was absolutely not allowed, so that’s not an issue. Research is funded through donations, but I’ve never heard of a scientist not getting enough assistants and supplies. I can see how you might get better coordinated research done with that, though, I’ll have to bring it up at the next meeting! A Home tax that goes to a science fund?”

"We have a lot of land, but some of it is very desirable, like large natural harbors or other good places to build cities. And natural resources aren't distributed evenly either. If we didn't have any taxes, then the people who got to there first and claimed the most desirable land would have a massive advantage, and it wouldn't be very fair. There used to be wars about stuff like that."

"Banning all pollution is something we wouldn't do, because sometimes it's worth it."

“Huh, I haven’t heard about any harbors particularly better than others, although I suppose it’d be a pretty niche issue. I don’t think we really need to argue about it, though.”

”When is it worth it?”

"When the harm done by the pollution is less than the benefit gained by doing the thing that causes the pollution, or when cleaning up the pollution is cheap enough or will be cheap enough in the future."

“No, I mean, what are you gaining out of the pollution-causing thing?”

"Energy, mostly. It's hard to generate large amounts of electricity without burning things. Although we're transitioning to nuclear power as fast as we can. Also, some industry and mining produces pollution as a byproduct."